
* 



I 




Class _JB.XX ^23 
Book ■ Sfr-SM: 
Copyright N° 



COPyRIGHT DEPOSJT. 



CIjc iHctljotufit $ulptt 



Magnetism of the Cross 




^K^iu^uh /^^*A> 



Magnetism of the Cross 

Sermons preached in Wesley Methodist 
copsJ ( 'hurt li, ( hicago 

By 
Polemus Hamilton Swift, I). I)., Ph.D. 

Oi Rock Rivbi Conpbrbmci 



% 



CINCINNATI: JENNINGS ANT) GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



THE UB*ARv OF 

OONORES^ 
On? Copv Rfcfivf- 

190^ 



CLASS 

- 

copy a. 






COPYRIGHT, 1904. HY 

jnmu aham 






Zvt jHg 3£if* 



C O N T E N T S 

CHAP1 PAGE 

I. Tin-; Magnetism of the Cross, - g 

II. Living Waters, - - - 31 

III. Wild Grapes, - 53 

IV. A Soul-satisfying Revelation of 

God, ------ 75 

V. Under the Juniper-Tree, - - 98 

VI. The Debt of Power, - - - 120 

VII. Modern Jehus, - - - - 141 

VIII. The Love of Christ a Fact and 

a Force, ----- 162 



I 

THE MAGNETISM OF THE CROSS. 

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto Me." — John xii, 32. 

WHEN Jesus uttered these words he seemed to 
many who heard him to he a visionary dreamer, a 
deluded enthusiast, or a self-opinionated impostor. 
How strangely they must have sounded to the men 
who heard them ; and how strangely they would 
sound to the men who hear them to-day but for 
the fact that they have been verified! "I will draw 
all men unto Me." Nobody had ever been able to 
do that in all the ages of the past. Could the Gali- 
lean peasant do what no philosopher, sage, king-, or 
potentate had ever been able to accomplish? Does 
not this strange prophecy prove Him to be insane? 
Then how extraordinary His method of drawing 
the world to Himself! He proposed to do it by dy- 
ing. Could He do by dying what no other man had 
been able to do by living? Who was He who dared 

9 



io Magnetism of tiik Cross. 

to make such a claim? A poor peasant, of one of the 
poorest and most degraded provinces of one of the 
most insignificant of lands. Israel was under the 
iron heel of the oppressor. The splendor of her na- 
tional life was fading out into darkness. The 
evening star of her hope was covered with clouds 
in which storm centers of wrath were plainly seen. 
Tile imperial power of Rome was regnant in the 

earth. Greece had gone down before that j> 

pt had been no match for the legions that car- 
ried the silvi The lun ' ( kuil and 
Germany had keen by the Misl I the 

Sewn Hills. The East had trembled beneath the 

tread of the ;. that COllld n 1. What 

COtlld Esrael be had no literature, no phi' 

phy, no poets, no lawgivers, and no armies. She 
a back number in the library of the world. As 
a rule reformations do i it of dying civili- 

zations. Help d<> ( s in, t come from those who are 
themselves in slavery. It was contrary to all law, 

all expectation, all analogies, and all philosophy that 
a man should arise ill the land of [srael, at the time 
when Jesus spoke these words, who could draw all 
men to Himself. Then, the Jew was not one who 
wanted all men drawn together. He was excltU 
bigoted, conceited, and narrow-minded. I I 



Tin: M m <'!•• 1 1 1 1 ; Cm 1 1 

upon himself as the special favorite of heaven, and 
upon everybody else as the enemy both of God and 

himself. SmvK it was a strange prophecy. And if it 

shall he seen that it has been fulfilled, then we ran 
not doubt that JesUS came from above; that he was 
something more than a Jew; that lie was the Son 
of man; that lie was the Son of God. Has this 
prophecy been fulfilled? Why has it been fulfilled? 
What is the influence of the fulfillment? These are 
questions of the very greatest importance. 

The student of history, art., philosophy, politics, 
sociology, and humanity knows full well that the 
prophecy has been fulfilled in so large a measure 
that there can be little question but that it will be 
fulfilled to the very letter. Jesus of Nazareth has 
been drawing, and continues to draw all men unto 
Himself. 

He is drawing the world to discipleship. Slowly 
but surely the religion of the cross is coming* to be 
the religion of the world. When Jesus was given 
to death by the order of Pontius Pilate, His true 
friends and followers could not have numbered more 
than a few score. These were weak, fearful, and, to 
all appearances, not the material from which an 
army could be gathered for the conquest of the 
world. Then came Pentecost with its 3,000 conver- 



12 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

sions. Presently we read of 5,000 who bowed to 
the sway of the peasant of Galilee. Then we learn 
of conquests in city after city and province after 
province. Then we read of churches being planted 
in distant lands; and the tide wave of Christianity 
rolls on and on. When five centuries had passed 
away, a great army of more than 15,000,000 were 
marching under the banners of the CTOSS. When 

Christianity had been exercising its influence for a 

thousand war-, the little one had become a great 

.000,000 bore the name of Him who was 

and rejected Of men. When JesUS had 

been on the throne of the universe 1.500 years, 100,- 

000,000 were numbered among the followers of the 

Nazarene. The nineteenth century opened with 

twice that number amor,- His subjects. That is tO 

say, thai the number of Christians had doubled in 

And from this point how rapidly the 

stream broadens. Voltaire (Mice said, "[ see the 

twilight Of tlie Christian day." Poor old man: it 

the morning and not the evening twilight The 

sun of tl 1 had hardly risen when he thought 

that the darkness of the dosing day was settling 
Over the world. With the opening Of the nineteenth 
century great world-wide missionary movements 

were inaugurated and Christianity began to be ap- 



The Magnetism op thi i [3 

plied to everj daj life as never before in its history. 
The result has been victor) all along the line. When 
the twentieth century dawned 500,000,000 of the 
inhabitants of this world were nominally Christian. 
They were not all saints, but they owned the name 

!hris1 and were looking to Him for light. What 
a drawing power the Gospel has been during these 
last years! The world is nearer Christ to-day than 
ever before in its history. The conquest of India 
has fairly begun. The people are hungry for the 

pel. A race is being born, spiritually, in a day. 
The Dark Continent is eager for the "book relig- 
ion." The entire Orient is open to the heralds of 
the Cross. Jesus Christ is fast becoming "the de- 
sire of the nations/' 

Then Jesus has been, and is, drawing the thought 
of the world to Himself. Did there ever live an- 
other about whom so many books have been written? 
One of the very greatest questions of the age is: 
"What think ye of Christ?" Wherever books are 
written and read, wherever the intellect of man has 
been quickened, wherever the stars of hope are shin- 
ing the most brightly, there men are thinking of 
Jesus. You remember that the hero of "Robert Els- 
mere" said of Him, u Do what you will, you can not 
escape Him.'' It would seem that men were com- 



14 Magnetism of the Cr< s 

pelled to think of Jesus, and the loftiest intellects 
of the ages have delighted to do Him honor. He 
has taken his place as King in the realm of thought 
as well as morals. All agree that "Never man spake 
like this man," and all maintain that never man lived 
like this man. Jean Paul Richter writes of Him as 
the one, "who being holiest among the mighty and 
mightiest among the holy has lifted with his 
hands empires off their hinges, turned the streams 
of the centuries out of their channels, and Still 
ems the world." Men of thought like Kant, Ja 

Galileo, 1 >n, Newton, and Schelling place 

us on the throne of perfection and 
hold him up to the I nun as the sublimesi 

character of all history. The philosopher Spii 
declares that He is the symbol of divine wisdom. 
Milton's are full of Him who 'Shall restore 

in the blissful Nap »le< m said : 

" Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself 
founded great empires; but upon what did the crea- 
tion of our genius depend: Upon force. Jesus 
alone founded an empire on love, and to this very 

day millions would die for Him." Herder exclaims: 

hri-t is the realized ideal of humanity. " 
Carl; 'ur divinest symbol, higher has the 

human thought not yet reached." Rousseau: W H 



Tii: m <<i ; mi. I 15 

the death of Socrates be thai of a sage, the life and 
death of Jesus are those of a God." And thus the 
thought and the heart of humanity have been drawn 
to Jesus, who satisfies the acutest intellects while 
he makes His appeal to the humblest hearts. In 
every realm He is the Son of man. 

Every student knows that the Nazarene has 
drawn and is drawing the art of the world to Hi 
soli*. It must be conceded that whatever has its place 
in the center of the art of a people lias the heart 
and thought of that people to a very great extent. 
The artist is forever looking- for the ideals of hu- 
manity. It is, then, a fact most significant that we 
find Jesus holding so large a place in the art of the 
civilized world. lie has been an inspiration to art, 
while art has sought to present him more fully to 
humanity. Tie is the center of the "Transfigura- 
tion," the last work and masterpiece of Raphael. 
The sublimest thing that ever came from the brush 
of Dore is the "Vale of Tears;" and the "Vale of 
Tear-" was painted to illustrate the words: "Come 
unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest." The best known work of 
Rubens is the "Descent from the Cross." The glory 
Of De Bauff is the ''Prodigal Son:' The galleries 
of Europe are crowded with representations of Ma- 



16 Magnetism or the Cross. 

donna and the Christ-child. What work of Leon- 
ardo da Vinci is better known than "The Last Sup- 
per?'' Hoffman's "Christ in the Temple" finds a 
place in nearly every gallery and in thousands of 
homes. Jesus was the inspiration of Michael An- 
gelo. Fra Angelico painted the face of the Christ on 
his knees. Ti'ssot consecrated his last and best years 
to the work of making more real the life of the 
Master. The great masterpieces of Dore deal with 
the storj of the Week, "Christ before Pi- 

has made Munkacsy immortal. Plockhorst'a 
"Easter Dawn" n an inspiration to multi- 

tudes of men and women wh^ have been called to 
mourn at the barred ga ulcher. Mil- 

linns have all hut worshiped before the sweet-faced 
Madonna that Murillo has placed on canvas. Every 
event in the life of the Master has been illustrated 
if not illuminated by the . E the masters <-f brush 

and chisel. JeSUS has drawn the art of the world 
to Himself. 

And as He has drawn the art, SO has lie drawn 
the music of the world to Himself. You rememher 
what happened on the night that witnessed His 

birth. A hand of angels gathered in the sky above 

the Judean hamlet and sang till earth heard the 
strain : "(dory to God in the highest, peace on earth, 



Tn I i. ii -m < >r in i . ' 17 

to men good will." Ami the song has never ceas< d. 
Hie world is filled with music to day as it never was 
re; and the song is an echo of the refrain which 
the shepherds heard on that far away and glo- 
rious night. 

" Peace beginning to be 
Deep as the sleep of the sea 
When the stars their faces glass 
In its blue tranquillity. 

Hearts of nun upon earth, 

Never once still from their birth, 

To rest as the wild waves rest 

With the colors of heaven on their breast. 

Love which is sunlight of peace, 
Age by age to increase 
Till anger and hatred are dead, 
And sorrow and death shall cease; 
Peace on earth and good will; 
Souls that are gentle and still, 
Hear the music of this 
Far-off, Infinite Bliss." 

Everywhere the echo is repeated. Organ and 
harp, piano and violin, bass-viol and cornet, horn 
and flageolet, and the human voice divine take up 
the strain and re-echo the praise of Him who came a 
babe in Bethlehem's manger years and years ago. 
Hymn and oratorio, solo and chorus, are busied 
more to-day with the name of Jesus than with any 
other. Christianity is the religion of song. In this 



is Magnetism or thk Cross. 

it is unlike other religions. The heart songs of the 
world are born of the great hopes of the Gospel. 
The nations of the earth will vet join with the chorus 
of heaven in the immortal hymn : 

" All hail the power of Jesus' name! 
Lei r ite fall; 

Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown Him Lord ^C all." 

There can he no question about it. Jesus has 
drawn, and is, drawing the song and the singing- 
heart of the world to Himself. Not only is it true 

that He has done that, but IK' has done more. He 

xeated a world of song. Men d^ not sin- when 

the heart is sad. Naturally there are no songs for the 
night. JeSUS Christ has breathed a new hope into the 
heart of tl -I [e has br -tight light into the dark- 

. lie has calmed the wave- for storm-tossed pil- 
grims. 1 le has D »n<piered death and bn 'tight life and 
immortality to light. lie has delivered men from 

the bondage of i fear. All this has given to 

the w<>rld a new \ of men have learned 

tig in every night of sorrow, as well as in every 
day of joy SUIC€ JeSUfl came. 

lie is drawing the world to His ideals. Take, 

if you will, his idea of greatness. You know who 

considered great in those olden days. The 



The Magnetism «»r mr Cr< 

king was great. He who had wealth was great. 
He was great who had armies at his back, and 
could conquer provinces and trample enemies under 
his feet. And the great m:m had a right to the serv- 

l the inferior man. Every king thought that 
he owned his subjects. Witness the reply of Reho- 
boam when the old men came to plead with him u^' 
larger liberties, or for a restoration of those which 
had been taken away during the brilliant reign of 
Solomon. Witness the fact that in Rome there were 
900,000 slaves out of a population of 1,600,000. Wit- 

the long* line of 360,000 who toiled unpaid for 
twenty years in the erection of the Pyramid of 
Cheops, that an Egyptian monarch might have a 
splendid mausoleum. Witness the innumerable 
wars of ancient history, waged only that some mon- 
arch might increase his own power and splendor. 
These tell the story of the world's thought concern- 
ing greatness. Then Jesus came and gathered His 
disciples into the little upper room in Jerusalem, 
washed their feet and said, "Lo, I have given you 
an example, that ye shall do as I have done. Let 
him who would be greatest among you be servant 
of all/* That was His idea of greatness. In His 
thought the weak had claims upon the strong. No 
man could live for self and be great. And He has 



20 Magnetism of the; Cross. 

drawn the world to His standard. The greatest men 
in American history have been George Washington 
and Abraham Lincoln, and they were the servants 
of the lowest and the poorest. The glory of our 
age is its altruistic spirit. We point with greatest 
satisfaction to our hospitals, our asylums, and in- 
stitutions of every kind that have been erected to 
save and serve the weak. This spirit which lifts 
otir a very one that has gone before is a 

child of the Golden Rule. 

Consid tnenl the thought and teachii 

of ]• Deeming the value of human lib 

have already called your attention t<> the fact that 
Rome had </oo.ooo slaves during her "-olden age; M 

and SO cheap a thing was life that your dog 

more rights than were ever accorded to 

than slave. So Cheap was human life that Pol- 

s on human flesh that their own 

might b d; and Klaminius ordered 

one of his slaves to be put to death t<> gratify the 
morbid curiosity of a wayward youth, who had 

never enjoyed the exquisite pleasure of witnessing 
the agonies of ;* dying man. 

• cheap was human life, and so corrupted were 
the b f the tipper classes, that the great Coli- 

seum came to be the center of interest and attraction 



Tiii' M v.\ 1:11 sm oi ; 'i'ii r Cfi 21 

in the city which was called the "Mistress of the 
World" Ami what did they do in the Coliseum? 
It was a massive pile, 5*3 by 620 u "'' 1 - tts walls, 
when perfect, stood [60 feel above the ground, l 1 ^ 
seating capacity was 87*000; but it is probable that, 

at times, more than 100,000 men and women 
crowded into that inclosure. And the 200,000 eyes 

were bent in one direction. Down in the arena glad- 
iators fought with gladiators; gladiators fought with 
wild beasts; prisoners contended with hired butch- 
ers, on the promise of liberty if they were victorious, 
while Rome lustily shouted her approval as men 
slaughtered each other, or wild beasts tore Chris- 
tians limb from limb. Augustus the Great boasted 
that he had devoted 8,000 gladiators to the arena 
for the amusement of the people. So cheap was 
human life. 

Then Jesus came and taught the divine doctrine 
of the "Brotherhood of Man/' and the spectacles of 
the Coliseum ceased, not because of the testimony of 
a monk, but because of the teachings of Jesus. He 
came and told the story of the Good Samaritan. He 
came and said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done 
it unto Ale." lie came and said, "How much bet- 
ter is a man than a sheep I" He came and lived as a 



22 Magnetism of niic Cros 

friend of the poor and the lowly. He came and said, 
"God so loved the world that he gave His only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." Then men 
thought, "Can the life of any man be cheap foi 
whom Christ died?" Prom the hour of His coming 
human life began to have a sanctity that it never 
Ami wherever the religion of 

Chri>t h; . wherever it has i: pe to-day, 

life i red thin-'. It is in lands where the ' 

pe] is unknown that infant children are put to death; 
that old men and women are buried alive to get 
them out of the way; that captives, taken in war, 
are butchered or enslaved after the}- have Mirren- 
l. In lands where Christ is really known the 
are nourished to Strength; the aged are cared 

for with holiest ministration; child-life is -acred; 
science I lengthen life, and philanthropy to 

lift bur/. m the shoulders of the race; .slaves 

are emancipated; nations go to war to pro- 

ted the weak, and the "struggle for the life of 

other>" is the law of pi In the light I 

this, how true are His word-, "And 1, if 1 be lifted 
up, will draw all men unt< » 

Ice, if you will, his idea of character. What 

:n, other than Christianity, ever insisted on the 



Tm 1: M \».\ i; i ism < >i' in \: Cri 

union of morality and religion! What religion, 
other than Christianity, ever insisted thai the 
pious should be the most pure? With the exception 
of Judaism, which was but a preparation for Chris- 
tianity, no religion of antiquity ever insisted that 
piety had anything to do with personal virtue. In 
the world at the time when Christ came no one ever 
thought that a religious man ought to be a good man. 
The gods themselves were not good. In India 
they were a drunken, immoral, thieving lot. In 
Greece and Rome they wore no better. Zeus was 
an adulterer: Aphrodite was lust personified; 
Hermes was a thief; Hercules was a murderer. In 
Phoenicia, the gods were the impurest of the im- 
pure, and delighted in human sacrifice. No one in 
heathen lands ever had as his chief desire, in the 
moments of exalted purpose, to be like the gods. 
That was just what one did not want. Ideals of 
purity came from the poets and the philosophers, 
not from the priests. In the time when Jesus came 
men with bloody hands and impurest lives were on 
the throne of empire, and these were the chief 
prie>ts of the Roman Cult. Think of Xero as chief 
t; and himself a god, and receiving the wor- 
ship of a lust-loving people ! 

Into this atmosphere, tainted with crime, lust. 



24 Magnetism of tiik Cros 

impurity, and sins of the deepest dye; where moral- 
it}' was divorced from religion, Jesus came ; and 
standing with His disciples on the sunny slopes of 
the Mount of Beatitudes said, "Blessed are the pure 
in heart, for they shall s '.." Remember that, 

and as you call to mind the standard that is set for 
Christians, even by the world, you will sec how 

- has been drawing men to his ideas and 

doctrines. And thus in the realm of religion, of an, 

of philosoph] hire, ami human 

life, He has been drawing the world to Himself. 

lie spake n<> fal»le when lie said, "I will draw all 
men mm i Me." 

And now I ask: What is the secret of this 
drawing power of the humble peasant of Galilee? 

I low is it that lie was able to do what no <>ne else 

ever d< ne in the world ? 

It must In . and is, something 

in Him that has never been in any man. He must 

he what He claimed to he. He must he the Son of 

There must he in Him a spirit thai IS from 

above. ( ta no other supposition can you account for 
the strange phenomena that we have witnessed. Y<>u 

can account for Plato. He was the product of his 
time and does not seem otit of place in his time. But 
JesUS was not the product of His time. He had no 



Tin: Magnetism of tin: i 

sympathy with the doctrines and thoughts that char- 
1 [e was ai>» >ve His age, and 
equally above every other age. He satisfies the 
heart as well as the thought of every rare, clime, 
and condition. In a sublimest sense possible 
He is the Son of man. 1 ask yon [o note the 
fad that His words speak peace to the most 
thoroughly troubled heart; that they meet the deep- 
est yearnings; that they answer the questions that 
spring out ^i our profoundest needs and experiences. 
Man has ever asked the question : "If a man die shall 
he live again ?" and Jesus answered, ik I am the resur- 
rection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in Me shall never die." Man is ever 
asking: Do the powers above care for me? Jesus 
answered : "The hairs of your head are all num- 
bered." Man is forever asking questions concern- 
ing the life of the world beyond death. Jesus an- 
swered : "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe 

rod, believe also in Me; in My Father's house 
are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you, 
and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come 
again and receive you to Myself, that where I am 
there ye may be also." And, in the light of that rev- 
elation, we see that the ageless life is to be the life of 

e. In that revelation the heart can rest- 



26 Magnetism of the Cross. 

He draws men to Himself because He gives 
what no one else ever gave. He presents to 
the race a character that is superlatively beautiful, 
and that is one reason why he has drawn the heart 
of the world to Himself. What is it that draws the 
iron to the magnet? It is something in the magnet. 
What is it that charms you as you gaze upon a 
landscape bathed in light? It is the beauty of the 
landscape, and its charm is in itself. What is it 
in the picture that holds you spell-bound ? It is its 

perfection as a work of art What is there in the 

music that thrills your SOUl? It is the perfection of 
its harmony. What is it in the poem that takes you 

back to it again and again? It appeals to your heart ; 

it is full of delicate beauties and tendered pathos; 
a great masterpiece, YOU are drawn to men 

by the perfection of character which they exhibit. 

In like manner the world is drawn t< > JesUS because 
lie presents a character that is superlatively beau- 
tiful. He is full of truth, tenderness, sympathy, 
1. >ve, purity, Unselfishness, magnanimity, kindness, 

a] beauty, and grace, lie is the Lily of the 
Valley, the Rose of Sharon, and the fairest "t" the 

sons of men. Therefore the world is drawn to Ilim. 

And, again, the world is drawn to Jesus because 
His life and death brought a revelation of a self-sac- 



Tm: Magnetism <>r the Cr 27 

rificing, transforming, divine love. Thai can not (ail 
to win the heart. We are drawn to the bird who 
sits on her nest in the storm to shelter her tender 
1; to the wild beast who will protect her cubs 
at the expense of her life; to the worn and weary 

her who carries a sick babe in her arms; to the 
nurse who watches by the bedside of the suffering 
for the sake of love. Self-sacrifice, devotion to the 
weak, care of the helpless, the emptying of self, 
always win the heart because they tell the story of 
a divine love in the soul of the actor. 

1 have never read anything that so drew me to 
the Grand Old Man of England as the story of how 
he went to hunt up a little bootblack, whom he 
missed from his crossing for three or four morn- 
ings. And when he found him sick, suffering, and 
dying, he went back to him again and again, seeking 
to comfort him in his lonely hours, to feed him 
when he was hungry ; and, as he drew near the bor- 
ders of the silent land, to tell him of the beautiful 
home in heaven into which the dear Lord was wait- 
ing to receive him. Do we ask why the life and 
death of the Man of Sorrows is drawing the world 
to Himself? Calvary is the measure of God's love; 
it is a declaration of the interest of heaven in the 
weakest and worst. As we gaze on that scene, we 



28 Magnetism of the Cross. 

hear the prophet speaking words that sink into 
the deepest depths of our hearts : "He was wounded 
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our in- 
iquities ; He bare the chastisement of our peace, and 
with His stripes we are healed." Do you wonder, 
then, that the world has been drawn to Jesus, since 
Calvary [ s such a revelation of love? 

Ik- draws us to Himself that lie may draw 118 
to life. He has to save. IK- can do for us 

what we can not do for ourselves, and what no one 

can do for us. 1. I me illustrate: Here is a ridge 
of rocks by the shore of the ocean, upon whose sandy 

beach I am reclining, while 1 listen to the roar of 
the incoming tide, and watch the seabirds circling 

above the foam-capped waves. Above my head the 
rise lil. at wall. The tide o mes sweep- 

ing in, and rushes hack over the wet sands, until the 

waves tumble about my feet Then 1 change my 

:i the water my feet 1 

to make my ( only to find that 1 am 

hemmed in by the rising floods. To right and left 
of me the rocks jut out into the sea. There is no 
pe in either direction. The path along which 
I came has become covered by the rising tide; and 
now the white-Crested waves tell me that it were 

death to try to escape in that direction. Above me 



Tin-: M.\r.\ <>r i 1 1 » . 

the wall rises as the line falls for more than fifty 
feet I can not scale thai cliff. 1 stand in despair, 
and look out over the wide waste of warring waters. 
k about me and see thai the tide has risen above 
the place where I am now standing. It will rise 
over the place to-day, and 1 shall be swept from the 
bench and be lost. 1 cry out at the top of my voice. 
The only sound 1 hear is the echo of my cry, as if 
nature were mocking me with her hoarsest laugh. 
I cry again, and still the echo conies, taunting me 
with its vain wail of despair. The. waves are now at 
my feet. Xow they are sweeping over my ankles. 
Lost! Lost I Then, just above my head, I hear a 
voice. It says : "Be of good cheer, I will save you." 
And then a rope falls down over the ledge. The 
"Tie that around you, and I will pull 
you up." I obey the voice of my unseen friend. I 
tie the rope tightly about my body. Then I feel my- 
self lifted from the ledge and out of the rising 
waters. I am dangling in midair. I am slowly 
drawn to the summit of the cliff. I am standing on 
the rock by the side of my redeemer. He has 
drawn me to himself and to life. That is the plan 
of Jesus. He draws men to Himself that he may 
draw them to life, to manhood, to character, and to 
heaven. While He draws He transforms. The 



30 Magnetism of tun Cross. 

magnet has two powers over the steel which is 
brought into its magnetic field. The first is the 
power to draw the steel to itself. The second is the 
power to make the steel into a magnet like itself. 
So Christ draws US to Himself that lie may trans- 
form us into His own image. 

The men of to-morrow will need a Savior as 
the men of this age need one. Jesus dees what 
no one else ever has or could. Hence He will con- 
tinue to draw the world unto Himself till the king- 
doms of earth become the kingdom of our Lord and 

His Christ 



II. 

LIVING WATERS. 

"And everything shall live whither the river com- 
eth" — Ezek. xlvii, 9. 

I )\i: of God's angels in human form had been 
conducting Ezekiel the prophet about the holy city 

n r special observations of the Lord's house. Finally 
in their wandering they came to the door of the tem- 
ple. There the prophet saw a tiny stream, which 
was hardly worthy the name of stream, oozing in 
drops from underneath the threshold. Investiga- 
tion revealed the fact that this small beginning of a 
river made its way upward through the soft earth 
at the south side of the altar. Accompanied by the 
angel Ezekiel started on a pilgrimage of explora- 
tion. He perceived that the tiny beck w r as a grow- 
ing, streamj for, as he accompanied the angel a 
thousand cubits from the city, he found that it had 
become a respectable rivulet whose waters surged 
about his ankles as he attempted to cross. At a 

31 



32 Magnetism of the Cross. 

fording place a thousand cubits farther on he found 
that the waters had risen to the knees. A thousand 
cubits beyond that point the waters were waist deep, 
and when they had journeyed still another thou- 
sand cubits, and attempted to ford the stream, they 
found a great river that was impassable. The stream 
had gT< be a mighty Rood. 

And as tlie pr alked on the banks he saw 

a wonderful sight. The Stream turned toward the 

desert and, lol the barren waste became a garden. 
Rich harvests waved their crowns of gold upon the 
plain where desolation had reigned before. Bright 
Bowers studded the green sward, and lifted their 
smiling toward a kind and beneficent sky. 

l.u Fruits ripened for the hungry on the tn 

which grew on the banks of the river. Sweet voiced 
birds sang the pr the Creator and Trans- 

former in the branches, and everywhere there was 

life, joy and beauty. Nor did the wonder end here. 

The river turned again and Bowed into the Dead 
a. You know what that sea was, and the secret 

of its name. It was a sheet of water in which no 

living thin-- was to be found. No fish sported ; n 
its waves, No water fowl floated on its surfa< 
That sea \ rave. Ruined cities lav buried be- 

neath its briny billows. The cur.-- of God was upon 



I.l\ I.M, \\ A I I. US. 

The traveler found on its shores wily barren- 
and desolation. But as the river that came 
forth from the Lord's house ran into the sea the 
waters of death were healed. A wonderful trans- 
formation took place. Life camped in the domain 

of death, 'flic sea was full of fish, and a band of 

fishermen built their huts on its shores and pulled 

their nets in its sparkling waters. 'Idle prophet saw- 
that everywhere the river went there was life, busi- 
activity, fruit fulness and beauty. This was 
the vision of the man of God, and he leaves us to 
interpret it for ourselves. 

What does the stream symbolize? Doubtless 
this life-giving river is the stream of God's grace. 
It is the tide of the Christ-life at work in the world. 
It is the Hood of the supernatural with which God 
has visited the race for its inspiration. 

The stream of the prophet's vision that brought 
healing, activity, commerce, life, beauty, and song, 
issued from the Lord's house. It bubbled up 
through the soft soil from beneath the altar of the 
living God. This is significant. The stream for 
the world's healing has a divine origin. It is for 
man, but it is not from man. 

A liberal preacher once said, "If the race has 
ever fallen it lias fallen upward." As we read his- 
3 



34 Magnetism w the Cross. 

tory and seek to discover the philosophy of human 
progress we are persuaded that man has never fallen 
upward, marched upward, or climbed upward, ex- 
cept under the inspiration of a divine idea. Civil- 
ization is the result of centuries of upward climh- 
ing under the leadership of the Almighty. You 
will find a hundred illustrations of this great truth 
as ymi Study the r I the past and search for 

the philosophy of human development 

Two thousand years before Christ came the 

deadly drift of polytheism v. ping over hu- 

manity, as the sands of the desert, propelled by the 
wind, encroach upon, and finally bury the oa 
Alan felt that there must be some power behind the 
varied phenomena of nature and life. But these 
ph( so diversified and complex that he 

was confused and lot his gra>p <m the -Teat truth 

of unity, even it" he had ever comprehended that 

idea. Man felt that there must he some power 
above nature, hut feared that Mich power was eons 
quent upon th nee, not of one being, hut of 

many; one of whom might love and another hate; 

one of whom might bless with prosperity and an- 
other curse with adversity; one of whom might 
bring the wealth of light and another the darkm 

of despair. Thus the drift of polytheism set in. It 



i,i\ ing Waters, 35 

brought confusion in thought and a growth of su- 
ction. It rolled eastward over the mountains 

and across the Fertile plains and produced in the 
land of tin* Ganges thousands of gods and gode 

QOl One Of whom, nor all of whom, had power to 

save tlii- race from the darkness of immorality and 

despair. It rolled Westward and left its blight on 
the civilization that had been developed in the val- 
ley of the Nile; and, finally, worked the same curse 
on the northern shore of the Mediterranean. In 
every land where the influence of that drift was felt 
there came, ultimately, the death of hope. 

Then Cod spake to Abraham. lie was a plain 
Bedouin of Ur in the land of the Chaldces ; but, 
somehow, it was given to him to see wdiat his an- 
cestors had never seen. He apprehended the great 
truth that God was one, in nature and yet above it, 
the source of all, the life and inspiration of all. That 
was a divine idea given to man. How it worked 
for the uplifting of the race! It separated Abra- 
ham from his people, and made of his descendants 
a nation by whom this idea was prized, and among 
whom it was incarnated ; and which stood against 
the prevailing drift as a great rock stands up against 
the shifting sands of the desert. That idea flamed 
out in the magnificent revelations of the Pentateuch 



36 Magnetism of the Cross. 

as well as in the Ten Commandments. That idea 
tiltimated, gave us the Old Testament, and was the 
inspiration and fountain-head of Hebrew civiliza- 
tion. Its idea was reflected by, and constitutes 
the sole religious power of the Mohammedan move- 
ment, which in alter years came out of Arabia, dom- 
inated the Levant, swept with the impetuosity of 

an avalanche along the southern shore of the Med- 
iterranean and at one time threatened with complete 

destruction the Christian civilization of Iuirope. 

Thai divine idea was carried over into the system 
of Christian thought, and became one of the grand 

element- of power which produced the new civiliza- 
tion that is blessing the world to-day with a better 
hope and a more glorious light. There can be no 

question about it. The stream of Hebrew civiliza- 
tion poured forth out of the fountain of that divine 

idea which w ; '•nmunicated to Abra- 

ham as he worshiped Jehovah beneath the brilliant 

sky of his far-off Eastern home. 

Two thousand years after Abraham we come to a 

new crisis in the life of the race. Hebrew civiliza- 
tion had been tested and had failed. The scepter 
had departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from 
between his feet. The children of the chosen Beed 
had failed to gntSp the idea that they had been 



i.i\ [ng Waters. 37 

ed that the) might become a blessing to others. 
They Fancied that God loved them for themselves 

alone, and hated all other peoples. The truth of ( Jod 
had been buried beneath the sands of rabbinical 

criticism and human opinion. Hebrew civilization 

had failed to secure the suhlime purpose for which 

it had been brought into existence by the Almighty. 
Grecian civilization had failed quite as signally. 

The little country which had given art, literature, 
and philosophy to the world, had played an impor- 
tant part on the stage of human history. Her wise 
men had developed a most profound and brilliant 
philosophy. Her poets had sung - so as to charm the 
centuries. Her artists had so worked as to give the 
sublimest ideals to the ages. But in spite of all these 
splendid achievements her civilization had failed. 
The speculations of her great philosophers were far 
above the grasp of the people, and had been power- 
less to prevent a corrupted, enervated civilization 
from going down into the darkness. The faith of 
the masses in the supernatural had degenerated into 
mere debasing superstitions. That civilization had 
been brilliant, suggestive, and educational. But it 
had possessed no power to redeem the race and lead 
man to the goal of the best. As a moral force in 
the world, it had been tested and had failed. 



J 



s Magnetism of tiik Cross. 



Roman civilization had succeeded no better. The 
affairs of the empire were in a state of chaos. The 
republic had perished in the throes of that revolu- 
tion out of which the empire had come. The simple 
manners and customs of the age of morality and 
faith had disappeared The religion of Rome was 
a political rather than a moral force. The emperor 
high priest in the days when men as vile as 
Tiberius and Xero sat upon the throne. The gods 

of the conquered nations had been transferred to 

the capital, where they had lost their divinity as 

- had lost their liberty. The Coliseum 

me the center of life in the imperial city and 

dr above Rome smelled of blood You have a 

picture of the heathen morality of that day in the 

first chapter of Romans. It is a very dark 

picture, and drawn by a master hand. But there is 
an abundance of contemporaneous testimony to 

prove that the darl s not unreal. Life had 

lost its noble purpose. The poor were little better 

than slaves and little better than cattle. 

The rights of the weak were ignored Labor was 
despised. Suicide was praised. Patriotism was 
dying. Popular skepticism prevailed in all quar- 
ters and darknes settling down Upon human- 
ity. Rinnan civilization had been tested and had 
failed. 



Living W iters. 39 

Then b child was bom in a manger at Betl 
hem. I [e grew to manhood. 1 te went down to the 

.•11 and was baptized bj J«»hn, that he might ful- 
fil] before the eyes of men the law of righteousness. 
When that service was over, the people who had 

witnessed it were amazed as they saw the heavens 

open and beheld a mysterious presence in the form 

of a dove descending from the cloven sky upon the 
Son of man. And as they gazed noon this Strange 

manifestation, and wondered what it might mean, 
the\' heard a voice speaking" through the rifted blue 
and saying, "This is My beloved Son." This was 

God's testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth. In 
process of time he taught men to pray "Our Father 
who art in heaven." He spake as never man spake. 
He went through life sacrificing Himself to bring 
consolation to the weary and the heaven-laden, as 
well as to lift up the unfortunate and save the weak. 
He entered Gethsemane and suffered more than 
mortal agony beneath the shadow of its great trees. 
He stood before Pilate, by whom he had been 
scourged, and declared J [imself monarch of the king- 
dom which is not of this world. He climbed the 
vd slope of Calvary bearing His own cross, 
where He hung nailed to the instrument of torture 
in the shadows of a gloom that was supernatural. 



40 Magnetism of the Cross. 

He was taken from that blood-stained beam limp 
and lifeless, and was laid away to rest in a borrowed 
tomb from whose door the stone was rolled away 
on the morning- of the third day, when lie came 
• forth from the dark domain victorious over death 
and the grave. 

In that hour of the world's crisis sonic great 
truths and some divine ideas came to be the prop- 
erty of the race. Since that hour men have been 

able to see that there is such a thing as the "Father- 
hood I" and the "brotherhood of nan." 

From that hour man has known that there is a 
life beyond the tomb. He has believed in the resur- 
rection of the dead, and dared to hope that 
there is forgiven* : .n and a divine power at 

work in the world that will transform! transfigure, 

perfect, and glorify life. These great truths came 

to man with mighty power. They gave a new pur- 
pose to human life. The}- created the stream of 
Christian influent They called into being the 

Church ^\ Jesus Christ, which, though it has not 
always been what it should have been, has exerted 
a mighty power for the uplifting of humanity. 

These divine ideas permeated the empire which they 

*ild not save, and went down into the chaos when 
at last it fell. But chaos can not destroy truth. Out 



Living Waters, 41 

of the chaos they came to mold the new dements 
European civilization. They inspired the Ref- 
ormation in Germany, Switzerland, Holland, 
Prance, England, and Scotland. They unsealed the 

fountains of civil and religious liberty. They drove 
men across the stormy Atlantic to rear in the wil- 

denn the New World a new temple of hope. 

They have wrought for the liberation of slaves, the 
developement of the philanthropic spirit, and the pro- 
duction of the thousand and one agencies of applied 
Christianity which characterize modern civilization. 
It is from these divine ideas that the power has 
come which has lifted the race to a higher plane of 
life, and which has inspired a grander civilization. 
The stream of the world's healing- is of divine 
origin. Only as man apprehends and appropriates 
spiritual forces and eternal truths will he find power 
for the uplifting of the race. Man is forever search- 
ing for some cleansing fountain. We are ever on 
the outlook for some force or agency that will bless 
and transform. Some are looking toward educa- 
tion ; some toward sociology; some toward art; 
some toward music ; and some toward literature. 
These are all great words. They stand for potent 
forces which have exerted a splendid influence in 
the world. I do not underestimate science or phi- 



42 Magnetism of the Cross. 

losophy, literature or education, art or music. 
They have been potent forces, but they have been 
potent only as they have taken hold upon great 
truths and divine ideas. These factors, divorced 
from supernatural truths, bereft of divine ideas, 
have always proven, not only powerless for g 
but powerful for evil. The Master said: "Ye 
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you 
free." Humanity will be redeemed, transformed, 
transfigured and glorified only as we can touch it 
with the power of the Christ-life. 

Here, also, we OOme face tO face with a truth 
that concern- individuals. You can be saved 

to a new life, only by the power of the divine. As 
the power that leads nations to the best is from 
above; 90 the force that works for individual salva- 
tion, uplifting and final glorification, i> from above. 
"There is none other name given under heaven 
among men whereby we must be saved." If life is 
unsal ryj if it is fuller of failure than of suc- 

; if yon look toward the past with regret and 
toward the future with dread; if you carry the bur- 
den of a guilty conscience; if your hand- are stained 
with wrong so that you have been unable to wash 
them clean again; if the highlands of a noble life 
seem to be a long way above you ; if it is. apparently, 



U\ [ng Waters. \s 

impossible thai you should be wli.it you know you 
ought to be, and what you really long to be; it" you 
fear that the gates of pearl will never swing open 
at your coming, then be assured that there is only 
one source of help for you; but be assured that 
there is help. Whence? From above. You must 
hv Jesus Christ. You must experience the throb- 

bings of divine life. You must let Cod into your 
BOUl. You must make Jesus your friend. You must 

lift your face toward the sky. The forces that trans- 
form life are from above. 

The stream of the prophet's vision was an ever- 
growing stream. At first it was a little thing whose 
waters might have been held in the hand of a child. 
Then it became a brook, then a broad river, and, 
finally, it poured its waters into the sea. 

We have in this growing stream a symbol of 
God's method of operation. He works from the 
less to the greater, from germs toward complex life, 
from infinitesimals toward the infinite, from possi- 
bilities toward the perfect. 

When tlie Infinite would build the world He be- 
gan with material in the state of emptiness and deso- 
lation. Then he breathed on the face of chaos, and 
brought order out of confusion, and a bare world 
rounded into being. But it was a bare world. It 



44 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

must be clothed with beauty. It must be peopled 
with innumerable specimens of animal life, and, at 
last, man must come to work out his destiny and 
climb to the goal of the best. How did God accom- 
plish this work? By the ]>r E advancement 
from the lower to the higher, from germs to com- 
plex life, from the infinitesimal to the infinite. The 
student of 3 the story as it has been 
written upon the rocks through the long ages of the 
earth's hi>t<>ry. lie tells us that God began with 
the low is of life. The waters of the Silurian 
sea swarmed with cr - of the lowest type. 

These wen red by radiates, mollusks, articu- 

lates and fishes which made their appearance at long 

intervals during the uncounted centuries of that a 
Slowly the Devonian WOre away with a Steady up- 
ward climb in the march of hie and was succeeded 

by the Carl is. ] [ere we find the huge amphib- 

ians and mammoth reptiles, which stalked over 
the land and .-ported in the waters. Then the birds 

appeared Finally, in the Tertiary period we have 

mammals | 1 of more complex life; and, after 

ages had worn away in which there was a steady 

march toward higher types and better forms, man 

appeared, the last and nobl< God's creation. 

Jt had been a climb for counth from the lower 

to the higher, from the simple to the complex. 



Living Watei 

The story of man's life on the earth i the 

same - s,i rt of history^ It is written: "In the 1" 
ning, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life, and man became a living soul." Because he 

;: living soul he was possessed of infinite p 
bilities. But these possibilities were not realized in 

neration, a century, or a millennium. Progress 
has been gradual, Language, literature, philosophy 
and art, have come only after centuries of waiting 
and toiling. The printing press, the steamship, the 
railroad train, the sewing machine, the telegraph, 
the ocean cable, electric lights, and a thousand other 
things that one might name, are all modern affairs. 
Science is in its infancy. The enjoyment of civil 
liberty by the people had its very beginning not 
many centuries ago. The reign of conscience has 
hardly begun. The great truth of the brotherhood 
of man, revealed to the world by Jesus of Nazareth, 
is barely beginning to make itself felt, after cen- 
turies of struggle with the prejudices and passions 
of the race. How slowly the light has conquered 
the darkness! How slowly the Christian law of so- 
cial life has marched on, while men have forgotten 
that the}' had ever heard the Light of the world say, 
"Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, 
do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the 



46 Magnetism of the Cross. 

prophets." Surely man has reached his present po- 
sition only after centuries of upward climbing under 
the inspiration of a heavenly influence that has 
been breathed upon him by the Almighty. 

This is God's method of action in every realm. 

When he wants an oak-tree he does not speak it 
into being and place it full grown in the forest, lie 
imprisons the possibility of that oak-tree in a tiny 
[in which has its home in the acorn. This falls 
into the BOfl BOiL God baptizes it with the rain 
drops, and warms it with the radiant energy of the 
sun. The sunbeams break through the walls of its 
dark prison house and whisper to the first myste- 

■ into the sun- 
light;" and tlie germ hears, and crowds its way 
through the Open window dreary prix»n, up 

through the cool earth, out into the sunlight, and 
1>< [ ireer < A a hundred, two hundred, 

live hundr< - : at the end OJ which it is a great 

Oak-tree. This law of growth holds in the realm oi 
the Supernatural as in the realm of the natural. 

d did ft 4 I aversion all 1 Ie in- 

tended you to have. The stream of grace is an 
ever-mere instantly widening stream, and it 

leads at last to the ocean of the Infinite. If vou 



I ,i\ i NG Wa i i -17 

have not an experience that is richer and iweeter, 
fuller and more glorious than it was on thai day 
when you knell al the feet of Jesus Christ and dedi- 
I your life to His service, there is something 
radically wrong somewhere. You have nol been 
true to God and His law of progress, [f you arc 
m>t a better Christian than you were a year ago; if 
you do nol see more in the Bible; if there arc not 
clearer visions of truth ; if there is not more of 
Christlikeness in thought and life; if you do not live 
more in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, 
there is something wrong" with your religion. You 
have been walking up stream toward the fountain 
and not downward toward the sea. My brother, 
there is something better for you than to live at a 
poor, dying' rate. God meant that we should grow 
in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. He has 
planned and purposed that there should be con- 
tinual advancement, day by day, as the months and 
years come and go. 

The revelation of this sublime truth brings a 
vision of the possibilities that reach out before us 
into the ageless life. There is something infinitely 
more glorious ahead. Like the river of God's 
grace the ageless life will be one of endless prog 



48 Magnetism of the Cros 

The march of life is forever and forever over an 
ascending path, and the Bible teaches, if it teaches 
anything, the sublime doctrine of the continuity of 
life beyond the river. soul of mine, thou art dis- 
couraged at tii s. 1: se ms as though there was 
more of failure than victory : more of retreat than 
advance; more of ebb than flow of the tide. 
The ideal is far above thee. But lift up thine eyes! 
There is something infinite' r ahead, and the 

life of the hereafter will reveal an ever-expanding, 
ever-increasing glory. The stream of God's grace 
be to thee now only as a tiny beck. But by and 

by it will bathe thine ankle.-. If thou wilt only trust 

and obey, it will erelong sweep about thy loins; 

and later on, if thou wilt be true to the truth, thou 

shall find thyself upborne by the boundless waves of 
the sia of infinite l< to everything a 

chance and time to Come to full maturity. The SOUl 

of man is tl '1 18 infinite. 

That m< i er. 

tely mansions, ( > my .soul, 

• he swift seasons roll. 

ive thy low-vaulted past, 
Ltd each new temple, Dobler than the last, 
Shut thee out from heaven with a dome more vast 

l thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell 

By Life's unresting m 



I ,i\ i m, Waters. 49 

As we study further the vision of Ezekiel we 
the facl tli.u this stream of divine origin had 
power to work a wonderful transformation. It was 
necessar) thai this should be wrought. The grace 
of God introduces one by a transfigured life to the 
path thai will lead at last to the perfect. The waters 
of that mysterious river were waters of healing. 
The} ran into the desert and it became a garden. 

They poured into the Head Sea and the power of 
death was taken away. The curse was lifted and 
the waters swarmed with life. Wonderful, wonder- 
ful transformation! prophecy and symbol of that 
more wonderful transformation which has been ac- 
complished again and again by the stream of divine 
grace, the flood of heavenly influence, and the waters 
of the Christ-life. 

This stream of divine origin has in it the power 
of living waters. "Everything shall live whither the 
river cometh." Jesus said, "I am come that the) 
might have life." He came not to found an empire. 
to promulgate a philosophy, to elaborate a theology, 

primarily, to give, the world a new code of 
ethics, lie came for the one supreme purpose that 
man might have life; and that he might have it in 
the glorious abundance that only the divine could 
bring. 

4 



50 Magnetism of the Cross. 

"Everything shall live whither the river com- 
eth." The Christ-life has everywhere been the in- 
spiration of the best. It is in Christian lands that 
we find the noblest intellectual life. The school and 
the college, the quickened intellectuality that mani- 
fests itself in popular intelligence, the printing press, 
the great libraries, and the reading millions are an 
evidence of the life-giving power of this divine 
stream. Unselfishness lives whither the river Com- 
eth. It is in Christian lands that we find a hi' 
spirit of Altruism. There the strong sacrifice them- 
selves that the weak may become strong. There 
are the more touched with a feeling of human 
infirmities. There are found mimberieSS agencies 
and institutions which are designed to alleviate suf- 
fering. There the Golden Rule IS realized as no- 
where e«e in the world. 

"Everything .-hall live whither the river Com- 
eth. " Conversion is the implanting of the germs 

of a divine life in the soul of man. The soul thai 

id in tr< 3 and sins shall live again, 

The power Of the divine life means growth and the 
ability to resist the forces and the foes that would 
drag men down. It means progress and the final 

attainment of the perfect. Peace -hall live. The 
soul away from God is full of unrest. Men have 



I ,i\ i NG W \ rBRS. 

longed for resl as they have longed for nothing else. 
When Christ comes there is peace. 
"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto 
you." When he comes there will be harmony be- 
tween desire and choice, knowledge and anion, the 
human will and the divine will. That means peace 
like a river, I te can give peace, for In- has it. When 

JeSUS sntaks the SOUl will be filled with a heavenly 

calm. Joy will live. There is a vast difference be- 
tween happiness and joy. Happiness is like the 
waves of the sea. They move in harmony with the 
varying winds. Happiness depends on environ- 
ment or the happenstances of life. Joy is like the 
Gulf Stream. It depends on the eternal nature of 
this world of ours and moves on forever in spite of 
wind and weather. To know Jesus Christ, and to 
be rilled with his spirit, is to have the calm of the 
green pastures and still waters no matter what the 
happenstances of life may he. 

"Everything shall live whither the river Com- 
eth." Hope shall live. Before Jesus came hope 
died. After He arose from the dead stars filled 

5ky. When we see Jesus Christ, the soul throbs 
with a hope that is big" with immortality. We shall 
live again. We shall have and know the loved ones 
in the land beyond the shadow. We shall see the 



52 Magnetism or tiik Cross. 

King in His beauty and be like Him. The Quaker 
poet has breathed forth not a few of these immense 
and soul-satisfying hopes in one of his latest poems 

which he calls "At last.'" 

M When on my day of life the night is falling, 

And. in the winds from unsunned spaces blown, 

I hear far \ 

M paths nn'. 

Thou wh«> hast made my home o( life fflt, 

Alien its walls 

( ) Love divii lent, 

Be near me when all else 18 fr<»m me drifti: 

Earth, BB and shine, 

And kindly : v. n uplift 

which ai mine. 

I have hut Thee, m Let Thy Spirit 

ind uphold; 

I, no branch ^C palm I merit, 
Id- 
Suffice it if— my good and ill unreckoned, 

I both forgiven through thy abounding [ 

I find myself by hands f.nnil: :ed 

1'ir. ••. — 

Thy many mansi 

md Btriving i 

An<l il< j b heavei ma 

The river of Thy peace. 
There, from the music round ai Ling, 

in would learn the new and holy song, 

And fin itli Tin I 

The life for which I I 



in. 



WILD GRAPES IN THE VINEYARD OF 

MAX'S SOUL. 

"And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, 
and it brou glit forth wild grapes" — Isa. v, 2. 

Wi; have in this chapter a parable wonderfully 
rich in truths of inspiration and warning. It takes 
the form of a song of the Well-beloved concerning 
Hi- vineyard. The Well-beloved is Jehovah, who 
is speaking through the prophet. The house of 
Israel and the men of Judah are the vines of the 
Master's planting. But the parable is certainly ca- 
pable of a wider application. Truth is vital. It 
makes its appeal to every age. The wider vision 
als the truth that the world is the vineyard, and 
that human souls are the tender plants. 

The song of the parable is a very pathetic, touch- 
tender, and sad lament. "The winged rhythm, 
the euphonious music, the sweet assonance of the 
appeal can not be reproduced in English." And 

53 



54 Magnetism of the Cross. 

vet the translation breathes a tender spirit, an ear- 
nest solicitude, a depth of sorrow at failure, a fath- 
erly yearning- and a great sigh of heart-broken dis- 
appointment that must deeply move every reader. 
Here is an insight into the 1 '.. The la- 

ment fairly throbs with fatherly anxiety. There is 
the - in it. There is the bitter disap- 

intment thai a mother must feel when the boy 

whom she idolizes, whom she low-, over whom she 

has prayed, and of whom she ha- expected much, 
goes away from home, gives way t<> tlie solicitations 
of evil companions, yields to temptation and plung 
into the whirlpool i t dissipation and riotous living 
until her heart is broken. Nol only does tbe song 
tell tin uperlative care, and 

pitiful failure, li :1k' judgment that 

must cbme when men have poisoned the fountains 
of lii'e, put the lower in the plaee of the- higher or 

prostituted great powers to ignoble purpo 

We have here a vivid picture of failure under 
drcumstan h as made the very best a most 

reasonable expectation. The song declares that the 

vineyard was situated in a "very fruitful hill." Tbe 

soil was the best that could be found. Tbe location 

was on a hillside called "the horn of the mountain, n 
where the warm sunlight might fall upon the tender 



Wild ( Iraj 

plants all daj long. Th£ vineyard had been fenced 
to prated it from wandering Bocks and herds. The 
owner had digged it over very carefully by hand, 
pulvcri/cd every lump, and had fertilized the soil to 
the utmost of his ability. The stones were gath- 
ered OUl by hand, as the digging had been done by 
hand; and, when all was ready, the choicest vines 
that money could buy were planted there. And 
then, that the vineyard might be protected from 
beast and bird and wandering robber, the master 
built a watch-tower in the midst of it, at some spot 
where every foot of ground might be under the eye 
of the watchman. Certain that such a vineyard, pre- 
pared and tended with such care, would not disap- 
point him ; and with a hope that seemed to be nearly 
realized, he built a wine press in which the purple 
clusters might be transformed into choicest wines. 
This is the picture of careful preparation, ten- 
der interest and hopeful expectation. But the owner 
was doomed to disappointment. For when the time 
of the vintage drew nigh, he found in the vineyard, 
on which he had expended so much care and money, 
only wild grapes. There is the cry of heart-broken 
disappointment in the words, "lie looked that it 
should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild 
grapes." 



56 Magnetism o* the Cross. 

This sad picture does not belong exclusively to 

the far-off past, nor vet to vineyards and farms. It 
has been reproduced a thousand times in the world's 
history. The profitless vineyard symbolizes many 
There are multitudes of failures where the 
very best was a reasonable expectation. The song 
may have a message fur many who have come into 
the bouse of God to-night 

We have all been recipients of a thousand hi 

. such as might justify the hopes of our friends 

and the expectations of Cod. The benefits of Je- 
hovah are numberless. Man) belong to the realm 

of the natural, and quite as many to the realm of 

the supernatural. We have been created in the 
imagi d. That puts eternity into <>ur hearts. 

We have power t<» think, reason, and love. The 
lamp of conscience has been lighted in the soul. We 
have been endued with an appetencj for God and 
the truth. We haw con on tin- stage 

of life in the grand of a most enlightened 

civilization. This is the die schoolhouse, the 

college, professional scto scription, and 

educational advantages • >f every character. This 
is th< libraries, great newspapers, im- 

mense magazines, a literary atmosphere and an in- 
tellectual awakening that manif< If in popular 



Wild ( fRai 37 

intelli This is the age when science, phil 

phy, and the Church have brought inspiring truths 
to the level of common life. To us has been given 
sealed Word, This answers the superlative 
questi the human heart. It points out the path 

of duty. It glows with revelations of tenderness 
and love. It throws a light serene and beautiful 
upon what would otherwise be a gloomy and unin- 
viting future. It brings to man the inspiration of an 
undying hope and points out the path to the summit 
of the ideals. To the gift of the Word, God has 
added the gift of His incarnate Son, and His ever- 
present Spirit. The truth has been vitalized. Power 
has been placed at our disposal to enable us to do 
the truth we know. Many of us have experienced 
what it means to pass from death into life. We 
rejoice in the consciousness that our names arc 
written in heaven. Most of us have had Christian 
homes and praying parents. We have had a home 
in the Church. The sacred Influences of the sanc- 
tuary have steadily, and yet almost unconsciously, 
touched our lives with an influence and an inspira- 
tion that ought to have led us to long for the best. 
The Sunday-school and the Epworth League have 
been among the powers that have urged us onward 

and upward. Christian institutions and companion- 



58 Magnetism of the Cross. 

ships have formed part of an environment that has 
made it easy to be good and do good. To us have 
come position, p pportunity, and immense 

possibilities. What more could have been given ? 
If the owner of the vineyard had a right to look for 
choice clusters at the time of the vintage, is it not 
reasonable that Cod and our earthly friends have a 
find in the vineyard of our souls 
rare fruits of achievement, character, and spirit- 
uality ? 

Bui we have learned by painful experience that 
expectations are not always realized. As there was 
failure in the vineyard oi our song, so, alas, there 
tOO frequently failure in human life. "And he 
looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it 
bn Ith wild grapes." That IS the story of 

many a life. Mere than frequently there is inglo- 

at where superla- 
tive could reasonably 
have 1 L Th< rds, "wild grapes," 

will 5UJ the line which failure IS most 

frequently found. 

Sometimes the words here translated "wild 

in Hebrew literature to express 

the fact that the have dried on the vines 

before they ripened i maturity. The bios- 



Wild Graj 

Boms of promise, the tender fruit of the springtime, 
the full-formed clusters of the midsummer, all came 
to nothing. The fruit was blighted, blasted, and 
dried up. It was found hanging useless and v 
than useless on the branches where rare and luscious 
grapes were expected. 

There arc wild grapes of this sort in every realm 
of life. We all know something about good be- 
ginnings with had endings ; promises that were 
rudely broken; vows that were unkept; ideals that 
were never realized; angels of hope that have been 
compelled to vacate their places before the coming 
of the angels of despair ; dreams that have vanished 
with the going of the night ; purposes that were con- 
sumed by the fires of procrastination; splendid de- 
sires that were stifled by the growth of the obnox- 
ious or the inferior; noble aims that were cast aside 
as one throws away a worn-out garment ; tears of 
penitence that have dried before the prodigal had 
taken a dozen steps in the journey from the far 
country to the father's house, and splendid work be- 
gun only to be allowed to remain unfinished and fall 
into ruin. All this means a harvest of "wild grapes." 

How many there are who start out in a business 
career with the flourish of trumpets and the congrat- 
ulations of friends who never reach any goal ! 1 low 



60 Magnetism op the Cross. 

many brilliant young* people bitterly disappoint their 
friends who have expected to see them become great 
scholars! They began well, but their sun set at 
noonday. How the enthusiasm of some philan- 
thropic workers oozes out and dries up before the 
intense heat of opposition! They started out to re- 
form the world, but gave tip in despair before the 
first real victory \ :;. I low many shattered 

wn good intentions and splendid beginnings 

have been found .scattered along the shores of eter- 
nity'^ sea I 

It is splendid to start well, but that is not enough. 
Pro I beginning become "wild grapes" 

00 the vines of life if One I do/en steps short 

of the goal. Tlie fig-tree of a certain parable was 
beautiful with , and yet it was cursed be- 

lt failed I the end of its being. It bore 

no fruit, and a fruit] tree is worse than a 

tree. It is well to promise, but broken 

promis i matter how well you 

run at the beginning, you may not be crowned if 

you stop before the race is finished. The crown of 

life is only f<»r those win > are faithful unto death. 

It is sad to see "wild ' anywhere, but in- 

finitely sadder to see them On the barren branches of 
soul life. The SOng of the parable pictures Mich a 



Will- G 

lition « if failure as ma) have come b \ 
you, Years ago there were hours of genuine re 
penting; the exercise of true faith, and then the 

I consciousness of pardon, the joy of the Spirit's 

ence, a holy calm and a blessed repose in the 
green pastures and by the side of still waters. There 

the light of a soul-satisfying revelation of God, 
the bliss of communion, the peace thai is born of 
the certainty thai one is being taken care of, and 
that "underneath arc the everlasting arms." There 
were earnest yearnings to reach the ideals that are 
pre-ented to us in the life and character of Jesus of 
Nazareth, The soul was thrilled by the visions of 
a hope that was big with immortality. There was 
a joyful participation in the services of Cod's house 
and a life that was fully dedicated to the Father's 
will. Xow all of this is a back number in your ex- 
perience. These things can be spoken of only in 
the past tense. Faith has died out of the soul. 

1 of gain has taken the place of hungering and 
thirsting after righteousness. The spirit of "other 
worldliness" has departed from you. Your eyes 
are turned toward business rather than Cod. The 
experiences of the Spirit's witness seem like a dream 
of the night. The joy of heavenly peace has de- 
parted. The angels of immortal hope have spread 



62 Magnetism o* tiik Cross. 

their wings and are gone. There is little interest 
in the services of God's house or in the work of 
building up the kingdom. What might have been 
precious clusters of the Spirit hang upon the vines 
of life, but they are blighted, blasted, and withered. 
They are worthless and worse than worthless. Have 
I narrated the Story of your life? If I have, then 
there is a harvest oi "wild grapes" being gathered, 
and the end will b :idemnation, and 

judgment. 

5si( >n "wild grapes 91 is used 

e the fact that the fruit IS of an inferior 

kind. The wild grapes that might be gathered in 

the woodlands and on the hillsides were small, s<mr, 

and almost worthless. The harvest of "wild grapes" 

of the inferior. 
The well-beloved planted in llis vineyard only 
vine- of the choicest kind. Does it seem strange, 
then, that "wild " should be found therein? 

This tnenon can readily be explained. 

in harmony with the eternal law- of nature, 
and calls OUT attention to BOfTie awful possibilities. 
Tbe scientist knows that there are such thin;: 

aeration and reversion of type. If you leave 

your • arden t<- i long time you will 

find, when you come again, only the common dog 



\\ i i.n Graj 63 

n which our better varieties have come by 
cultivation* Suppose that you have a splendid patch 
of rarest strawberries. It you leave them to them- 
selves the time will come when you will find in that 
spot only the small berries that arc commonly Found 
in the woodland and meadow. Charles Darwin tells 
us tliat if a flock of tame pigeons, with variegated 
and beautiful plumage, were left alone on an island 

for fifty years, we would find that their descendants 

had donned the uniform coat of the birds of the wild 
wood. 

This law of defeneration and reversion of type 
works with greater rapidity in the spiritual than in 
the natural realm. We read in the Bible that God 
created man in His own image and breathed into 
him the breath of a divine life. He began his ca- 
reer with the Spirit of the Almighty stirring within 
him. How is it, then, that he comes to be in the 
condition in which he is found in every land and 
age? How does it come to pass that there is so 
much antagonism to the truth? so much disloyalty 
to God? so much depravity of heart? so much un- 
righteousness in choice, thought, and life? The 
power of degeneration has been at work. The 
choice of sin has despoiled the image of the divine. 
Wrong doing has grown into a habit. All this has 



64 Magnetism o* thj: Cros 

worked to create a type infinitely below the original. 
Then the law of reversion has been exercising its 
influence, so that in the history both of nations and 
individual souls we have found a deplorable har- 

I of "wild grapes/ 1 

A life that surrenders to the lower and is satis- 
: with the inferior will, by the eternal laws of na- 
ture, be cursed with a harvest of "wild grapes/ 1 
man is in danger at this point It is hard to 
climb with steady step to the summit of the 

ideal-, but the best can lie secured only by infinite 

pain> and unending toil. The plac( of the perfect 
is be>< rod 54 «ne dark 1 f-surrender 

and sacrifice. The "Islands of the Blessed" can 
never be reached by drifting. The Koran is right 
when it says that Par to be found beneath 

tin- place where the scimiters are crossed. That 
means that coronation comes only after conflict and 
tory, I can be ; d <>nlv 

by the one wh<> knows the experience of soul perspi- 
ration, multitu '<nt themselves with the w< 

fully inferior. It to drift and hard to row, 

therefor, find "the Man the Blessed." 

Bi requires twice as much time and work to 

earn a grade of ninety-live, the Student IS satisfied 
with eighty. The farmer i- content with two-thirds 



W'll D ( Js.\i 

of the crop he might produce, even when thai will 

sell for more than one-third of what the superior 

crop would bring 1 , because the best can lit- secured 

only by redoubled diligence. Ninety-five out of 

hundred mechanics are satisfied with inferior 

skill, and more inferior wages, when the world is 

ling for the best, and is read}- to pay a tenfold 
■• it. The world is sinning against itself, 
for it is a sin to be less than we might be, and do 
I ss than we might do. 

There are "wild grapes" of inferiority in the 
realm of soul life as in every other. If ninety-five 
per cent of our students, artists, lawyers, physicians, 
business men and mechanics are satisfied with far 

than they ought to do and be, more than that 
percentage are contenting themselves with the posi- 
tively inferior in the realm of character and spirit- 
ual attainments. How r few there are wdio make a 
complete consecration of themselves to Jesus Christ! 
I low small the number of those who give ten per 
cent of their income to help the Master conquer the 

Id! A very much smaller fraction will repre- 
sent the company who put God first, the spiritual 
above the material, and who are doing their utmost 
to realize the highest for themselves and win the 
andest victories for the Kingdom. 

5 



66 Magnetism or nn: Cross. 

The man who is satisfied with the inferior, lives 
below his opportunities, yields to the power of de- 
generation and reversion of type, is content with 
low aims and ideals, and gives up the fight before he 
has done his best, will find at last a harvest of "wild 
apes" in the vineyard of the soul. If this is true, 
then, if you are not a Christian, you are planning 
for a harvest of that inferior fruit. Christianity 
makes possible the very hot. To be a Christian 
is to be en God's side, and that means that one has 
infinite power at his disposal. Jesus Christ is the 

chi( tnong ten thousand, lie is the pearl of 

greatest price to those who find him. lie is the 

ideal of tin lb- is the l >nly perfect pattern and 

ample that has been presented to the race. His 

life and death place at OUT disposal the one power 

that is able b i break the force of degeneration and 
the reversion of type, li" we turn away from the 
light which lb- brings, no other will dissipate the 

Om l*"i' US. "There is none Other name given 

under heaven among men whereby we must be 
saved." If. then. He is not your ideal; if you have 

not come to terms with Him; if you are not called 
by His name; if yOU have not determined to know 
the whole truth and follow it at any COSt; if you 
are not loyal to the light of that matchless life; if 



Wild < iRA] 

you arc not putting the spiritual above the material; 

Id is more to you than the riches of the King- 
dom; if you are not obedient to the heavenly v\ 
then you arc living for less than the best, and you 
will be sure to find a harvest of "wild grapes" when 
the clusters of life are gathered in. There arc a 
thousand things of great importance which are less 
than the best. Physical culture is important ; a 
good education is important ; a fine position in life 
is important; a choice library is very much to be 
desired; money is a splendid thing if it has been 
honestly earned, and is kept in its place. But the 
importance of these, and many other things that 
might be named, is not the importance of the su- 
preme. Testis said: "Seek ye first the kingdom of 

and His righteousness." If you are failing at 
this point, you are putting the less before the 
iter; and to be satisfied with the inferior is to 
gather a harvest of "wild grapes" at the last. 

Sometimes these words are used to designate 
the poison berries that so closely resemble the wild 
grapes. They were not only inferior and useless; 
the}' were positively harmful. It was bad enough to 
find the real "wild grapes" in the vineyard. It was 
infinitely worse to find the poison berries growing in 
that place of superlative advantage. It is bad 



68 Magnetism of thjs Cross. 

enough to see a life devoted to the inferior. It is 
awful to see one devoted to the obnoxious, the im- 
pure, the unclean, the degrading and the deadly. 
The vineyard of the song produced what it was 
never intended to. This symbolizes the prostitution 
of advantages and | uses and ignoble 

ends. How frequently we find this prostitution of 
power! The vineyard typifies many lives. By every 
law they otght to have been good, and ought to 
have exercised a splendid influence in the world. 
They were endowed with genius, wealth, the power 
of a strong personality, position, friendship, and all 
the advai I a place in the heart of a splendid 

civilization. But, alas, all this has been used, not 
I, but for evil; not to help on the cause of 
truth and righteousness, but for the prosecution of 
selfish aim> ; not to Mess, hut to curse humanity. 
We find thi- prostitution of power everywhere. 

Sharpers who ean speak the language of incoming 

immigrants lie in wait for men and women who 

land upon our shores to make gain out of them. I 

knew one who wa> a most ready penman, who SO 

ly imitated the signature of a friendly business- 
man that it was accepted at his hank a- genuine 

again and again. I have kl air-man to I 

that he was a Christian, and o i lead family 



W'ii.p Graj 

hip. in order to gain the confidence of his host, 

sell him goods, and make larger gains \<>v himself. 
In each case you have the prostitution of a noble 
power, that ought to have been used for good, to the 
t of purposes. One day as I passed the open 
door of a saloon, 1 heard a very sweet voice sing- 
ing a rare old son-'. 1 was deeply pained. It is 
awful to go the downward way one's self. It is in- 
finitely worse to drag others down by the prostitu- 
tion of a God-given power. God had given to that 
singer the power of a wonderful voice. 'That power 
might have been used, and ought to have been used, 
to inspire men to grander and better lives. It was 
being used to draw men into the open gates of hell. 
The harmony of heaven was being used to make at- 
tractive the way of death. That was awful. And 
this thing", in one form or another, is taking place 
everywhere and on every day. Whenever genius 
and power have been perverted so that men are 
harmed rather than helped ; whenever we use the 
gifts of God so that life is shadowed rather than 
brightened; whenever our influence brings sorrow 
rather than joy, degradation instead of inspiration, 
mourning instead of rejoicing, death instead of life, 
there is the cultivation of that which will bring a 
har\ "wild grap< 



70 Magnetism of the Cross. 

And there is something beyond the harvest. As 
we read on through the song we come to these ter- 
rible words: "And now go to; I will tell you what 
I will do to my vineyard, I will take away the 
hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; and break- 
down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. 
And I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned, 
nor digged, but there shall come up briers and 
thorns. I will also command the clouds that they 
rain no more upon it." The tender song of love and 
care changes to one of bitterness, retribution, and 
judgment. Failure, every ch< ice i >f the inferior 

and every prostitution i>i power must be accounted 

for. After the harvest, judgment. That is not a 

pleasing truth, but it c it of our study 

of the eternal laws of nature and God, and we shall 

not be true to ourselves if we do not give heed to 

its \ 

Every life will be judged according to its ad- 
vantages. We -hall be held accountable for what 
we have received, and condemned for the failures 

that we might have avoided. Unerring wixlom will 
mark with certainty the contrast between the "i>" 
and the "ought to have been." You have read the 
parable of the talents. That tells us that not only 

were the servants held accountable for what they 



Wild I ta u 71 

had received, bul also for the use they had made of 
their treasures. We may be satisfied with ourselves 
to-night, but thai is not the important thing. We 
stand face to face with a question of awful signifi- 
cance: "Is God satisfied with us? Arc we what 
ught to have been considering our advantag 

Have we done OUr whole duty? The soul;' of 

the parable began with tender expressions of love 

and good will. It ends with harsh words of justice 
and judgment, Israel had no one to blame but 
themselves. And we will have no one to blame but 
Ourselves, if in the hour when the vintage of life 
shall be gathered in, we find only a harvest of "wild 
grapes/' 

The goodly vineyard that brought forth only 
"wild grapes'' was doomed to devastation and neg- 
lect. The former was bad enough. The latter was 
awful. Nothing more dreadful could happen than 
simply to be left to ourselves. The student of his- 
tory is pained as he reads of the failures of the 
past. The world has made poor progress with all 
the help and inspiration that God could give. In- 
dividually, we have gotten on all too poorly when we 
have taken advantage of every good influence that 
touched our lives. What will happen when we 
are left to ourselves? That were hell enough for 



72 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

any rational being. It must be awful to be left to 
ourselves with all the evil tendencies, with the bent 
to selfishness, with the power of degeneration in full 
operation, with the law of the reversion of type in 
full play and every good taken out of the environ- 
ment that presses upon us. This is what will happen 
if we reap a harvest of "wild grapes." The Bible 
speaks of grieving the Holy Spirit until he takes 

his departure from the sinning soul. Kphraim was 

so joined to his idols that even God could do noth- 
ing except t" let him alone. It IS the law of nature 
that failure to use a power forfeits the right to the 
< r that has been abused If a man will not use 
arm nature punishes him by taking away the 
power to use it. Pish who live in the dark waters 

and to he without eyes. If 

they will live in the darkness nature punishes them 
by takim the u>< ans. 5 >, if a 

will not obey the light it will he taken away. If 
one will not be loyal to the truth one may not long 

it, If one will prostitute the powers < >f body, 

mind, and soul to base uses, that prostitution will 
most surely work ruin to the powers themselves. 

"lie that SOWetfa to his flesh .shall of the flesh reap 

corruption." This is the law of the present, and it 

will he the law of the future. To refuse to see God 



Wild Grai 

results in spiritual blindness. To neglect heaven is 
to incapacitate ourselves for it. To ch< ainsl 

the truth is to take ourselves into a far country 
where the false reigns as king. The Bible tells us 
of men for whom a lie had become the truth. I 

can not think of soul wreck more awful than that. 
The greatest failure is that which conies where 
the most might have been expected. It is a tena- 
ble thing to see a rowboat capsize and cause the 
drowning of a half dozen human beings. It would 
be much more terrible to see the Deutschland go 
clown in midocean and carry to a watery grave the 
two thousand souls she had on board. It is bad 
enough to see waifs living* lives of degradation and 
sin when they never had a fair chance ; never had a 
home ; never knew the sweet influences of a mother's 
love ; never felt the power of a mother's prayers, 
and never w re touched with the inspiration of a 
truly Christian environment. But it is worse to see 
young men and women go downward into the dark- 
lives have felt the thrill of everything 
that was Christlike. The best can reasonably be 
expected of the most of you who hear me to-night. 
The light is streaming on your path. Will you 
walk in it? The rod of divine power is held out to 
you. Will you grasp it? The angels of God are 



74 Magnetism of the Cross. 

speaking to you. Will you listen to their voices? 
Doors of immense opportunity are wide open at 
your feet. Will you enter them? The sublimest 
ideals of the ages have been revealed to you. Will 
you make them your own? Jesus of Nazareth in- 
vites with tender voice. Will you crown him King 
of kings and Lord ui lords in your hearts? If 
you will, the vineyard of your souls will he made 
glorious with rare dusters of character, achieve- 
ment, and spirituality. But if you turn away from 
the light; if you ignore the plan of God; if you 
squander the riches of infinite love; if you surren- 
der to the inferior and the Ignoble; if you prostitute 

the gifts of heaven to unholy ends, you will gleata 

a harvest of "wild grapes" when the vintage of life 

tthered in, and that will mean disappointment, 

failure, dar air. 



IV 



A SOUL SATISFYING REVELATION OF 

GOD. 

"Philip saith unto I Inn, Lord, show us the Father 

and it Stifliceth us." — John xiv, 8. 

As in', shrinking mimosa droops its branches 
and folds its leaves when the hoof beat of the ad- 
vancing" steed is vet far distant, so the heart senses 
approaching danger and shudders at its coming. 
The disciples felt that a crisis was at hand. The 
morrow cast its fearful shadows over the hearts of 
those who were gathered in the upper room. In that 
hour of uncertainty, misgiving, vague expectancy, 
and dying hope the eleven held the Master back 
from the garden by the spell of hungry eyes and 
hungrier hearts. They could not let Him go. The 
past had been full of blessing. They had hoped 
that their Lord would deliver Israel, and that they 
would be chosen for some great work in the new 
kingdom. But somehow, on that awful night, they 

75 



76 Magnetism of the Cross. 

feared that the earth was giving way beneath their 
feet. They knew not what would happen. The 
darkness was gathering, and they must have light. 
The fires of hope must be rekindled. The demons 
of fear, whose dreadful fa ked down upon 

them out of the darkness, must be banished. It 
was an atmosphere of undefinable longing, inex- 
3 itd-torturing apprehension that 

filled the Upper room when li QOUnced this 

farewell add] trance, cheer, and COm- 

Of the need} to the end of time. lie told his 

friends that ; id not immediately follow Him, 

but they could trusl God, who was their Father as 
well as His n. That word, Father, came like a 
burst of sunlight into the darkened room. Philip 
d the ye troubled soul when 

-how u> the Father and it sufficeth Us." 

Humanity has foi Lined for a soul-satis- 

fying revelati m \ >f I Jod. 

Man has universally believed in God. Cicero 
declares that there never was a nation of atheists. 
Nations hai ~\^\ without cities, without 

written laws, without literature, without art or phi- 

phy, and some with a vei 

language, but none haw ever been found without 

sort of religion and .some idea of God. The 



A & .11. S \ i imn i \«. Rj \ i i. \ i i- 1 I , id, 77 

philosopher has been convinced that he needed ( "><i 
:counl for the multitudinous facts of the uni- 
The unlearned, also, have felt that there 
must be some force back of nature and life. The 
sons of nun have quite generally been satisfied with 
the opening words of the Bible — "In the beginning 

!." 

As man has believed in the divine, so he lias 
yearned for a revelation or Theophany of the In- 
finite. Job cried out in the hour of darkness, when 
misfortunes like the waves of an angry sea were 
rolling over him, "O that 1 knew where I might find 
Him." Moses prayer, "I beseech Thee, show me 
Thy glory."' David sang, "As the heart panteth after 
the water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O 
God." This God hunger was not confined to Israel. 
fl lias been universal. There are some facts in the 
religious history of the world that must be accounted 
for. 

With scarcely a single exception the religious 
ms that have held the heart and thought of 
mankind, no matter what their origin, have degen- 
erated into idolatry. We find images by the hun- 
dred thousand in the far East; beneath the 
mounds that have been opened on the banks of the 

Tigris and the Euphrates; in the tombs of Egypt, 



78 Magnetism of the Cross. 

where have lain for centuries the bodies of the men 
and women who lived and loved, hoped and feared 
in the valley of the Nile. We know that the temples 
of Greece and Rome were crowded with dreams of 
beauty, and that grim and hideous forms had a 
place before the shrines of Isis and Osiris. The 
Scandinavian temples of the north were not with- 
out their idols. The peoples of tlie Park Continent 
and tlie inhabitants of the Mauds of the Sea mum- 
ble their prayers and offer their sacrifices to ghastly 
and grotesque figures which are called gods, [mages 

have hern worshiped by men and women in hours of 

heart need everywhere. What is the philosophy of 

this universal phenomenon ? 

Idolatry is an effort of needy souls to represent 
the unseen and realize the presence of God. Man 
has i rever frit that there must be some power hack 
of the multiplied phenomena of nature, lie heard 

the winds roaring through the mountain-valleys, or 

sighing in the treetops. He saw the forked light- 
nings rend the storm cloud above his head. He 
witnessed an awful destruction when tin- tornado 

swept in fury over the land. lie noted the phenom- 
ena of growth and decay. He saw his friends fall 

before the invisible power of disease. He felt that 
some of these unseen forces were hostile to him; he 



A S< 'i i. S.\i i>r\ i NG Rj&VEl vi U i 

ved that some were friendly. To placate the 
tid praise the latter appeared to be an im- 
tive duty. Hence his temples, his altars, and his 
ficial fires, Bui it is difficult to realize the 
nee of the unseen. The worshiper, in all prob- 
ability, Fancied that some representative of the force 
which he desired to placate or praise would make 
r the difficult task. Acting in harmony with 
his fancy he carved images, before which he pros- 
trated himself, and which, at last, became to him 
the thing they intended to represent. Hack of the 
world's idolatry we find the yearning desire of a 
dying- race to discover, realize the presence of, and 
to come into right relations with, God. Man must 
realize the presence of the Infinite. He must find 
God. That is the need of the ages. Christianity 
satisfies this deep yearning of the heart. We read: 
"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, 
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only 
tten of the Father full of grace and truth;" 
and when this incarnate Word came He said, "lie 
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. M 

The race has universally expected a Theophany. 
Account for it as you will, man has forever looked 
a revelation of the divine. We find this expec- 
tation running like a golden thread through lie- 



80 Magnetism ok tjik Cross. 

brew literature. When a man had sinned, and must 
suffer in consequence, God came to him in the gar- 
den, and, before he thrust the sinning pair from 
that place oi beauty and blessedness, Jehovah gave 
them a great pi tie day a redeemer and 

deliverer would Moses enlarges on the 

promise when he tells the people oi the prophet 
whom the Lord would raise up like unto himself, 
to whom they must listen. Every type and symbol 

kept alive the hope. Every bleeding sacrifice 

inted to the future day of deliverance. Centuries 

came and went. 'Idle tid< rrow and affliction 

surged over the children of the chosen seed. The 
land was deluged with i but the hope 

never died out. The truth was repeated and en- 
larged Upon Until we hear Uaiah 5] of tin- 
future as if it were already present: "For unto us 

a child is horn ; unto u , and the gov- 

ernment shall he Up »n His sh( >uldei*8 : and 1 lis name 

shall he called Wonderful, C >r, the Mighty 

d, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." 
This prophecy of Hebrew Scripture is re-echoed 

in the predictions r, and in the mytholo- 

i and Rome as well as of other nations. 
The Greeks believed that Prometheus would he de- 
livered from his chains and save the people from 



A S< ,; i S \ i ESI \ i NG l\i:\ i.i \ ii' KD. Si 

sensuality. \ Roman sibyl taught thai one would 
come, bom of a virgin mother, who would r< 
the Gold The Egyptians had their phoenix, 

which symbolized to them a power thai would hear 
away the age of oppression and wrong and bring in 
a better day. The Indians of North America, no 

matter what their condition, looked lot such a coin- 
ing. As the Red Man camped by the margin of 
swift-running rivers, penetrated the depths of dis- 
mal forests, chased the buffalo over wide-spreading 

prairies, or sacrificed in the massive temples of the 
Aztecs, he mused at times on the advent of a great 
spirit who would break the chains of bondage and 
set man free from the dominion of the hideous mon- 
sters who were the incarnation of the spirits of evil. 
This hope of a coming* deliverer is so universal, 
persistent, and positive that we may regard it as in 
the nature of an instinctive longing of the human 
heart; and every instinct that is God-implanted can 
be trusted. The wild geese journey northward in 
springtime. In that far away land they make 
their n the margin of lake and river. There 

they lay their eggs and rear their young, who sport 
on the sunlit waters during the summer days in pcr- 
vntment. But when the autumn approaches, 
- put on their golden robes of imperial 
6 



82 Magnetism o* thk Cross. 

beauty, the grasses die in the field, or the rushes 
nod their fading plumes toward the leaden watei 
the birds, that never knew another home, feel a 
strange desire to he away toward the southland. 
Obedient to this instinctive longing they spread 
their broad wings and soar away, high above fields 
tluir eyes have never seen before; across lakes on 

whose waters they have never floated; on and on, 
and there, at last, hundreds of miles from the de- 
is the southland to answer to the instinet 
that urged them to make the move. Can we believe 
that God will honor the instinct which he has created 
in the br© the wild and dishonor that 

which we find in the soul oi man? That is unthink- 
able. 1 le would not d<> it. I le has not done it. The 

the race has been met in Jesus 

Christ. In the fullness of time the Theophany came. 
In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 

He is the mighty deliverer. He is God's answer to 

the yearnii I the rac 

There is another important fact that can not 
cape our attention. Every great n has had 

its incarnation-, or their equivalent. Hinduism has 
its incarnations of Brahma and its many avataras of 

Vishnu. The word avatara means descent The 
ataras were, therefore, a stepping down on the 



A S \ i'im\ i NG Ki.\ ii. a i [i i 

part of divinity, or a descent i<> man. The early 

aras were numberless, but there were ten 
rial incarnations of the god. He came in the form 

at fish, then i>\ a tortoise, then <>f a hoar. 
The fourth avatara was in the form of a man lion. 

The fifth time the god came as the great dwarf. 

The sixth, seventh, eighth, and the ninth have an 

rical basis. The god was incarnated in the 

form of some sage or hero, who struggled with the 

malignant spirits, and, when he had conquered them, 

led again into the deity. The eighth of these 
incarnations was fulfilled in the coming- of Krishna, 
and the tenth is yet to come. In Egypt we have a 
perpetual incarnation. The apis, which was every- 
where worshiped, was thought of as the image of 
the soul of Osiris. In the Lamaism of Tibet we 
have what may be called an hereditary incarnation. 

governor of that land impersonates a living 

and is called the Great Lama. He is always 
young and exceedingly fair. He lives in a gorgeous 

da, and receives the homage of the people. 
When he becomes sick, or loses his youth, lie is put 
to death by the priests, who always have another 
educated to take his place. In the Xew World, from 
the frozen zones of the far north to the tropics, we 
find legends and traditions which tell us of hero- 



S4 Magnetism or thk Cross 

gods who came to men to save them from the evil 
powers to whom they were in bondage. You re- 
member how Hiawatha came, lived, and worked for 
his people, and how he went away when his task was 
done, along a path of light into the gales of the 
sunset. The deifications of the Greeks and Romans 
the same philosophy back of them. God must 
come to man or man must be lifted up to God. 

What docs all this mean? Perhaps it is a faint 
echo of the • cur fin QtS brought witli 

them through tl irded by the 

llami: "d. It Certainly is an expression ^i an 

infinite yean r a revelation of the divine. An 

incarnation is a necessity. We must od. Man 

must climb up to the divine, or bring God down to 

himself. Tl at truths back <>f the 

philosophy of religion. ] d man when 

. that 1 knew where I might find him!" 

There must be a Theophanj . ( Jod must .-< mnehow be 

brought i man. Man can ! fied Only 

when there LS a r 1, and only when he 

that the Infinite is his friend. "Show 

us the Father, and it sufficeth U 

The theophani - Christ 

have not Batisfied the human heart. The}- ha\ 

failed at a vital point. 



A Soi i. Sati 

ne evening I was wandering through th 
Manufacturers 1 Building at the World's Columbian 

tsition. Presently I saw before me a guard 

with a little boy in his arms. The little fellow was 

ice was tear-stained, and his eyes were 

red and swollen from crying, A curious crowd 

gathered about the pair. Every one was willing to 

do something. We were surrounded with marvels 

of beauty, but the child did not notice them. The 

dreams of loveliness seen in Italian marble did not 
attract his attention. Swiss wood carvings and 

French tapestries were passed by unnoticed. Words 
of kindness, spoken by the guard or by others, failed 
to pacify him. He kept crying, "I want my mamma. 
I want my mamma." Only a living, loving mother 
could still that cry and satisfy that heart. 

Humanity has been lost in the wilderness of this 
world. Man cries for a living Father. He yearns 
for a loving friend. The incarnations of the Orient, 
the deifications of the Occident, the images before 
which humanity has prayed, the philosophies and 
dations that have been born of man's best 
ght, have failed because they have not brought 
that for which man has most deeply longed. We 
are children of Cod. We may be lost children, sin- 
ning children, disobedient children, willful children, 



86 Magnetism o* the: Cross. 

wandering children ; but, nevertheless, we are God's 
children. In the beginning God breathed into man 

the breath of his own life, and there are moments 
when all yearn for a friend. The child heart erics 
out for a father. If we can not find him we must 
be unsatisfied forever. 

Divinity, as revealed by speculative thought, has 

never satisfied the heart of man. When Plato had 
done his best — and no man ever did better — he 
cried: "We DlUSt wait til! fod- 

inspired man shall reveal to US the path <>f duty and 
X)Riplish for US what Pallas did for Hiomede, 

ep away the i Charles 

Kingsley puts the truth splendidly in his descrip- 
tion of the cria rs that came to poor ll.patia. 
She had done her very best to know the truth and 

;each it to her disciples, but she was conscious 

that she had failed. With tin of fail- 

tire came doubt — doubt I veil of the 

existent in whom she had tried to believe. 

She mi ndered the QtOUS prob- 

lem: "If there were them were the 

highest bliss of men. Would they not teach men of 
themselves, unveil their own loveli the cho 

few, even for the sake of tin ir own fa not, as 

she had once dreamed, for love of those who bore a 



\ Soul SaI ISFl i SO Ki-:\ i.i..\ri<'\- <>r ( ',ui>. 

Same kindred to theii But the great wave of 

doubt was filling her heart, and the musing went 
on: "But what if there were no What if 

the stream of fate, which was sweeping their names 
away, were the only real power? What if the old 
Pyirhonic notion were the true solution of the prob- 
lem of the universe? What if there were no center, 

no order, no rest, no goal, but only a perpetual BtlX, 
a down-rushing change? And before her dizzying 

brain and heart arose the awful vision of laicretins, 
of the homeless universe, falling, falling, falling, 
forever, from nowhence to nowhither, through the 

unending ages, by causeless and unceasing gravita- 
tion, while the changes and efforts of all mortal be- 
ings were but the jostling of the dust atoms amid 
the everlasting storm. " The best revelations of her 
philosophy could not satisfy her heart. These reve- 
lations have never done any better for mortal man 
in any age or land. 

The God of speculative thought has never come 
near enough to whisper words of comfort into the 
of the race in the hours when man has most 
needed comfort. God has been known to philoso- 
phy by many names. Some of them are grand. 
Most of them are necessary, but they hide rather 
than reveal, and as far as they (\o give a revelation 



88 Magnetism of the Cw 

they awe rather than comfort. What idea does the 
name Infinite bring to man? Boundless extent, in- 
comprehensible greatness, linv. ace, and 
little more. I do not blame the philosophers for 
saying that the Infinite is unknown and unknowa- 
ble. I can not quarrel with them for saying: "Fool, 
why bruise thy knuckles by knocking on a granite 
wall as if it wet or that could be open 
The Infinite and Absolute is not the s nsible 
and the - tprehensible. The stoic philosophy 
may have satisfied the inter. ; it never 
comforted the hearts of the multitude. The t< 
of that unsympathetic system may he SUA 

nd 6 >r1 
*od in nattu rtune, is 

the uni\ ling mind." 'i 

words are like the .^lare of the electric light They 
do not warm or give life. The words of 
which pr ather, are like the >un- 

that fall upon the earth in th< time. 

They melt the ice and SnOW and quicken all nature 
into new: life, Philip was right when he 

he Father, and it sufficeth u 

The attempts to bring man by the idola- 

and incarnations of the ( Orient have failed more 
ally than the philosophy of the 



A Sun. Sat; R] \ i i. \ i i<- 

the g< "l^ and to be degraded by 
them. He has felt in the supreme hours of his life 
that the beings he worshiped could nol In-]]) him, 
and has become practically an unbeliever, while he 
has been held iii bondage by superstition and the 

fear of the supernatural, lie has come to the con- 
clusion that the beings who could not help could not 
punish, and he has surrendered to the grosser pas- 
sions and drifted down the stream to a degradation 
and immorality that is all hut indescribable. The 
rian knows that civilization reflects the con- 
cepts the people have of God. Civilization, national 
institutions, and individual character have been built 
up around the ideas of the divine that have lived 
in the thought of the people. As this is true it were 
impossible that idolatry could either satisfy the soul 
or inspire the best. 

The revelation of the Fatherhood of God in the 
face of Jesus Christ is the one and only Theophany 
of the divine that lias fully satisfied the yearning 
heart of the race. 

As I think of God as my Father I have an as- 
surance of love so rich., sweet, full, and tender that 
it fills me with the peace of the green pastures and 
the still waters. If fatherhood and motherhood do 
not mean love they do not mean anything. Paren- 



90 MaGNI i- Till- ( 

tal love gladly makes any sacrifice, overlooks im- 
perfections, excuses failure when the child has done 
his best, foi lig^al, laughs at 

impossibilities, forgets the past, and seeks to inspire 
to the best, as tl to climb 

to the lofty summit of tl. plans for 

the best, wishes for the best, h r the b 

sacrific and looks for the best, God 

her. Therefore He loves me. That ex- 
plains Calvary. When 1 see a father's face 1 will 
hide with joy in His bosom. 

The Katln | , .;:■ -n of 

providential care. The one memory of my mother 

is that of perpetual C .criliced 

everything for her children. Jesus Christ app 
to that ry and bi 1 think 

of my mother. How tenderly, comfortingly, hope- 
fully, and helpfully the i lit out in the 

life as well a- the teachii '1 'rac- 

tically he says: V U know how 1 have lived; you 

have seen Me open blind eyes, heal the om- 

►ITOwful, Strengthen the weak, and con- 
quer deatli for those who were held in bondage by 

it. All that yOU have seen in Me you inn d in 

God, for he that hath seen Mr hath seen the father. 

A.- we listen to I lis words about the lilies, die spar- 



A s« w i. Satisfy] ng Rr\ blai n i Iod, 91 

i thai can not fall to the ground without the 
notice of our Father, the numbering of the hairs of 
our heads, and the giving of good gifts to our chil- 
dren, we feel that we can rest in God and trust Him 

everything, because He is our Bather. John G. 
Whittier had felt the throb of the Father's heart 
when he wrote : 

" I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know 1 cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care. 

And so beside the silent sea, 

1 wait the muffled oar; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore/' 



To see God as a Father is to have a vision that 
brings Him very near to our lives. That is one of 
the great needs of the present hour. The trend of 
a certain phase of modern thought has been to push 
God farther and farther from man. The revela- 
tion of Fatherhood breaks the bondage of skepti- 
cism and brings a vision of comfort. Fatherhood 
means comradeship, communion, nearness, and fel- 
lowship. In the parlor of the great house a com- 
pany is gathered. In the center is a man whose 
reputation for learning, wisdom, and statesmanship 
is vast and well deserved. The guests treat him 



92 Magnetism o* thh Cross. 

with respect that borders on reverence. They all 
keep their distance. By and by they are all gone, 
and the great mai lone in the library. The 

door opens and a little girl enter-. She does not 
tread with careful step. She ski; — the \] 

and Springs into his I She tumbles his hair 

turvy and kisses him, again and again in glee. 
Sh( e down into his | rch of tn 

ures that si find there. She plies him 

witl ■■ »n after qu | :d of the long- 

est chapter. You i r in the hall and sa\ j 

"1 low dar< bs in childish glee and 

answers: "That is my papa/ 1 That is enough. 

He is her father and that - him very near 

her. lie may be great and very learned, while - 

but he is her 

father. 1'. mradeship, fellowship, 

tnpathy, and iship. Jt bri 1 very 

ne. • :i. 

When we have Father we dan 

t a tender reception and a complete Eorgive- 
s we turn our ;'. I a better life and 

our bad.- upon the wrong that ha 1 the past. 

There are no sweeter, or more touching chapters in 
"Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush" than "bike as a 
Father/ 1 and "As a Little Child." We read the 



A S<>ri. Satisfying Revei#ation ot God. 

st<»i\ of Flora's wandering, of her father's hardness 
of heart, of how he blotted her name from the family 
Bible, and thru of Marget Howe's rebuke of 
Lachlan's repentance, of Marget's letter, of the 
condition in which it found Flora, of the home com- 
ing ami oi the singing, in the gathering twilight, of 
the hymn that had comforted Flora's heart in the 
hour o\ her sorest trouble in the great city. Then 
we sec Lachlan kneel to pray. He begins: "Our 
Father." It was a new word to him. He used to 
say, "Jehovah." The new experience had unsealed 
the fountains of his father heart. He could not only 
love, but forgive. Flora found forgiveness, love, 
and a sweet welcome when she found her father. 

How the human heart craves forgiveness ! Soc- 
rates cried out : "O, for some screen to hide me 
from my past!" The river Lethe was created by 
one of the deepest yearnings of the human heart. 
Men must be able to forget the past. It must be 
forgiven. We are all conscious that we have not 
done our best. We know that we have trampled 
on the truth, turned away from the light, taken our 
departure into some forbidden land and wasted our 
substance in riotous living. Like Paul, the whole 
race cries out : ''Who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death ?" Calvarv does for us what 



94 Magnetism o* tiik Cross. 

Lethe never could. We know that God will give 
his penitent, prodigal children a welcome and for- 
giveness because 1 te is a Father, Motherhood never 

casts off. Tli; of home are ever open. My 

Father will receive me and forgive me when, with 
consciouMi' lilure, 1 turn from the sin-stained 

past and go to 1 [is feet 

The revelation a Father is the corner- 

stone of hope. The new life will end in something 
sublimely [ >« In our sane moments we long 

for the best We yearn for the perfect We look 
with e* »ward the future and wonder if 

thei 'and anywhere where the great yearning 

for tlie perfect will he satisfied. 1 answer unhesi- 
tatingly, "Yes." 1 am a child of God. That is a 
guarantee of the ; Mr. Huxley tells us that 

it is the eternal law of I that the offspring 

must re» mble the parent more than an) other being 
in the universe. Thai is nature's law. It is like- 
se the law of Christ God is my Father. The 

time will C hen, in harmony with the eternal 

law '1 he like Him. 1 am on tin- way 

to the perfect The goal may he out "t* sight in the 
dim distance. I may have failed m< quently 

than I ha\ I. 1 may be di fed be- 

cause of those failures. It may he a hard fight t<> 



A Soul Satisfying Revelation of God, 95 

conquer myself and the enemies thai constantly be- 
set me. Wrong choices and wrong doing may have 
sadly marred the image of the perfect in me. It 
may seem an infinitely long distance to the summit 
oi the cloud-encircled mountain. But God is my 
Father. When 1 knelt in faith at the feet of Jesus 
Christ, the Spirit of the living God breathes into 

me again the breath of the Infinite, and, therefore, 
1 shall be like Him, here or yonder. T am content. 

What an inspiration this truth brings to us. It 
breathes courage into hearts that were filled with 
fear before. We can not fail. So also it will wean 
us from the world. If God is my Father I must 
reveal His characteristics ; I must be true to His 
nature ; I must honor His ideals ; I must turn away 
from everything that He hates. If God is my Father, 
I am richer than words can express. The universe 
is His, and to me will be given all that I need to 
enable me to reach the goal of the perfect. O soul 
of mine, look up and rejoice! 

The revelation of the Fatherhood of God trans- 
forms service into a delight, and is the supremest 
inspiration of work for humanity. God is my King 
as well as my Father. Every subject must work 
for the building up of the kingdom to which it be- 
longs. Ever}' son must take a deep interest in the 



96 Magnetism or the Cros 

work of his father. If we have learned to pray 
"Our Father," we must have learned to say "My 
Brother." God is the Father of all men. The un- 
fortunate of every land are His children. My 
Father is interested in the redemption of the world. 
I must be, also, or he unworthy of my Father. We 
can ma be worthy childn God and keep from 

other and more needy children the light that has 
ne on our pathway. If God is my Father every 
needy man must he my brother. The starving sons 
of India are our brethren. The destitute Freedmen 

hers. The unclothed, tin- 
fed, poorly housed, Unwarmed men and women who 
make their h in filthy tenements on dark 

streets and narrow alleys, where virtue is well-nigh 
ar impossibility, are our brothers and Those 

who have been overcome by temptation, and swept 
away in the angry floods «»t" sin, are our broth* 

We can not he indifferent to their need and he chil- 
dren of God. I f ( ur Father we can not say, 

What is ii that men and women are Starving 

in India: that families herd together like cattle in 

the shun districts of our great cities; that industrial 

condition- are crowding the weak to the wall; that 
the g men and WOfft tt, 

soul as well as body: that lawl and crime 



A [NG R&\ i i. \'iiM\ mi- ( JoD. 

arc rampant in the land; thai the battle of the 
will end in defeat unless the lovers of right ai 
themselves and do their duty; that the nations are 
stretching out eager hands for the light and truth 
which God has given to us, and that the nun power 
is dragging its thousands of victims into the whirl- 
of darkness every year? We can not claim 
the wealth of divine Fatherhood and at the same 
time set aside the claims of human brotherhood. 
Light always brings obligation. If we neglect these 
duties we shall suffer more than they will whom we 
neglect. \\ hittier puts it well when he says: 

"The meal unshared is food unblest: 

Thou hoardest in vain when love should spend ; 
Self ease is pain; thy only rest 
Is labor for a worthy end." 



v. 

UNDER THE JUNIPER-TREE. 

"But he him, 7 a clay's journey into the icil- 

de I came and sat down under a juniper- 

tree." — i Kings xix, 4. 

. and we arc in the desert, a full 
:n Beer-sheba. It is a lonely 
The sun has set large and red, behind the broken 
horizon. The air is balmy with the heavy odors 
of an ( Oriental twilight. Presently upon a 

man who has ing rapidly, as it would 

seem, during a long and weary day. He is travel- 
stained, and has a worn and d< . There 
is an ex] tern >r in hi b< nigh he 
bad been fleeing from the face of some dreaded 

enemy. 1 lis whole appearance tells the t dis- 

tnent and failure. He has thrown himself 

upon the ground beneath a dwarf juniper-tr< 

ntly Ik begins to utter a prayer of dis- 
couragement and dejection. "It is enough, now, 



i \I>I.K Till: Jl MI'LK Ti: . 

< I Lord, take away m) life; for I am not better than 
my fathers. Wli.it good can come of this uneven 
conflict. The prophets of Israel are dead; the al- 
tars of Jehovah arc thrown down and destroyed; 
the hosts of the people are unfaithful to Jehovah; 
the palace of the king is a den of iniquity and a 

haunt of wickedness; the fear of the true God has 
departed from the land, and [, Only, am left alone, 
and they seek my life to take it away. What . 
can come of all this toil and sacrifice? My life has 
been a failure. I have been as unsuccessful as were 
my lathers, who made vain attempts to stem the 
tides of idolatry and sin. Better to die and end the 
Struggle, and find a calm repose in the neglected 
tomb of my ancestors." So the disheartened, weary 
man moans out his complaint, until, too weary to 
moan, he falls asleep. 

Who is this discouraged, disconsolate, despond- 
ent man? Elijah the Tishbite. What, is this the man 
who stood yesterday on Carmel, and, single-handed 
and alone, won a mighty victory over the seven hun- 
dred and fifty priests of Baal and the Grove? Is this 
he who dared to face Israel's sin-stained monarch 
and say, "It is thou that troublest Israel I" Is this 
the man who quailed not before the assembled mul- 
titude that gathered on the testing day? Is this he 



ioo Magnetism of thk Cross. 

who prevailed with God in mighty prayer, so that 
the windows of heaven were closed for three years 
and six months; and who prayed again, after his 
mighty conflict and his j s victory, and the 

heavens were opened and abundant showers del- 
uged the thirsty land? Is this the one who was 
str< rim before the flying chariot of 

Ahab Ei summit t«> the gates of J< creel? 

Yes, it is the same man. Changed, it may be, discour- 
d, dej< ight upon by fears 

that we might n^t haw ted, pouring forth 

complaint for which we are unprepared, hut the 
me man. There were hours Of Weakness and fail- 
ure in the life of Elijah JUSt as there are in every 
life. lli> hist UTS and mine, with this 

tion, that in his life there were more strong 
hours than weak ones; more hours of victory than 
defeat; while in cur lives weakness is more abun- 
dant than strength, failure than BUCCeSS, defeat than 
victo 

Life is full of strange contrasts. We find the 

Weakest hour in the life of the old prophet imme- 
diately following his hour of . His 

under the juniper-trei on the day 

after his triumph on Carmel. That is natural. The 

highest mountain n found over against the 



I \\|)i:k th i: J UNIPER-Tri [Ol 

deepest valley. The loftiest wave follows the deep- 
est depression. We live in a world where joys and 
sorrows blend together like lights and shadows on 
a landscape. Here we meet a bridal party and look 
upon faces wreathed with smiles. How bright, 
fresh, and happy the world seems to these as they 
journey down life's shining way! To them it is a 

vista arched with the radiant how of promise. But 

scarcely has the bridal party passed when we meet 

a funeral procession, moving with slow and meas- 
ured tread toward the silent city on the hill. How 
dark, gloomy, and forbidding existence seems to 
these ! And so life forever runs its changeful round. 
Yesterday a rainbow-arched vista; to-day a cloud 
with no silver lining. The darkest days seem to 
follow close upon those which are brightest and 
most beautiful. In harmony with this law of con- 
trasts, the weakest hours of human life are likely to 
come just after those which seem to be the strong- 
est. Man is a strange combination of strength and 
weakness. To-day he stands, strong in the strength 
of his imperial manhood; to-morrow, discouraged 
and weak, he trembles before the meanest foe. You 
have had your Carmel-top experience. In that hour 
you thought yourself strong enough to vanquish 
every foe. You believed that you never would doubt 



102 [Magnetism or the Cross. 

again. The great truths of religion had been so 
vitalized in your experience ; you had won such 
complete victory over the enemy ; you had received 
such glorious visions of God and the truth, and 
had been so charmed and fascinated by them that 
you fancied the days of disc lent, despond- 

ency, darkness, and backsliding never could find 
place in your life again. Then you awoke the very 
next day to find yourself nerveless and weak: with- 
out power I truth you knew ; without a soul- 

: without peace and rest : 

tempted a! >traction; wearied beyond en- 

durance; ready to fall, and in sympathy with the 
pn t prophet, "It is enough; n«>w, () 

Lord, take away my life." We have had such ex- 
perience in da; unshine and shadow, strength 
and weakr. - and failure, victory and de- 
ls has brought us *est sympathy 

with the life of the grand <>ld Tishblte prophet 

cause the history of Elijah is the history 

ry human life, it will be well worth our 

while to try to understand the philosophy of th< 
strange contrasts. That may save us from failure 

to service on some sad day, when we find OUTSelveS 
"tinder the juniper." 

How came Elijah under the juniper-tree ? You 



UnOSR i ii i J i N [PER Tw t03 

say thai you would hai :ted better thing 

him. He was 3 prophet of God; had been called to 
a peculiar work; had received a divine commission, 
and had been permitted to win great victories. Well, 
be it so. Prophets and common people, priests and 
laymen, are living under one and the same law. 
Elijah was a man with like passions as ourselves. 
His failures are our failures. The sources of his 
weakness are the same as ours. The prophet or the 
minister has no strength that may not come to every 
child of God. You are exposed to no greater temp- 
tations than I am. It is quite as easy to stumble on 
the pulpit stairs as it is on the steps of the Board of 
Trade. Let us not think that we are peculiar, and 
that others have strength that we may not have. 
The only difference between us and others is that 
we are called to one line of work and activity, they 
to another. Our temptations are not specially pecul- 
iar. The strength that makes victory possible for 
others may be ours if we only will have it. The 
sources of failure are similar in all our lives. 

The juniper-tree experience of Elijah may have 
been consequent upon a natural reaction. To every 
action there is always opposed an equal reaction. 
This law wilhaccount for the despondency and de- 
jection of die old prophet, at least in part. A thor- 



104 Magnetism of the Cw \ 

oughly exhausted body begets a thoroughly ex- 
hausted brain ; and with a thoroughly exhausted 
brain the mind can not act normally. Elijah had been 
exposed to a terrible strain, physically, nervously, and 
mentally. You can not ha gotten the strain of 

that day of preparation ; nor the hours of intensest 
excitement, when the children of Israel gathered in 
serried ranks on the side of Carmel, How the soul 

of the old prophet must have been strained to its 

highest tension as he Faced the king, the priests, and 

the great multitude of idol worshipers who were 

anxiously awaiting the outcome of the test It is 

not easy t Elijah did before the fire fell. 

■l can not ha\ tten the hurry and COn- 

fiiMon which attended the slaughter of the pru 

of Baal on Kishon's banks, nor yet the agonizing 

pra ' rain when his .soul, perhaps for hours 

keyed up by an incy and desire 

such as we can k:. little about. Then came 

that long race of twenty-five miles in the darkn< 

of night, with the Tin filling his ears, 

while he ran before the dashing chariot of the hu- 
miliated and half-frightened king to th< a of 
reek It had been a day of awt'ul strain, and 

every action has its equal reaction. When the night 

had come, the strain \ v and the victory won, 



I \\m;k ill 1 : J i \iri.K Tk 

it is not at all surprising thai Elijah found himself 
nerveless and weak ; and then, just at that hour when 
he was beginning to feel the influence of the reac- 
tion, the me bel knocked at his door 
and brought that word of threatening: "May 
the gods do so to me, and more also, if I 

make not thy life as the life of one of them by to- 
morrow about this time." The reaction had set in. 

He was weak and nerveless in consequence, and he 
and fled for his life, just as you and I would 

have done. 

What came to him is very likely to come to us. 
Action is always followed by reaction. Our moun- 
tain-top experiences are almost sure to be followed 
by such depressions as leave us strangely weak and 
bitterly discouraged. It may be helpful to remem- 
ber this as we try, with all our might, to live and 
work for God. Many hours of mental and spiritual 
depression come because of aching heads ; because 
we have been watching, through long nights of 
anxiety, by the bedside of suffering friends, whom 
we love more dearly and truly than we love our own 
lives. They may be consequent upon the fact that 
we have been under a terrific strain in business : 
that we have been staggering, for weeks and months, 
under burdens that were too heavy for human 



106 Magnetism of the Cross. 

shoulders. It may be true that for a long time every 
power of body, nerve, and mind has been pressed 
into service to meet the demands of some supreme 
hour. We did not feel it at the time, but the 
reaction was sure to come. Causes the most trivial, 
apparently, oftentimes makes all the difference be- 
tween happiness and despair, faith and doubt, cour- 
• and indecision; and it is quite probable that we 
are nerveless and weak, that faith is at a I >\v ebb, 
that the I and the vision of soul LS nut 

far-reaching as it has been at times, simply be- 
cause we are worn out from having been compelled 

to bear up under strains that were too se\ US. 

God has nr.t changed. He lias no' us. 

t friends have : 'i US. Life has no 1 

for us than it had J -. The >un is shining JUSt 

unnatural strains have so ex- 
hausted e\ and mind, that 
it is impossible l<>r US t<> be what we were before, 

to think clearly, or to judge rationally. In the hour 

i< 'ii that foil 
that we watch and pray, and that we guard our- 
selves and the approaches to the SOIll in a peculiar 
manner. 

It is possible that the weakness, depression, and 

fear which we have found in the old Hebrew prophet 



I 'm'i.k i i i i ; J i N [PER I i"7 

about I there was a lack of human 

pathy. Those words of his prayer speak volumes: 
"I. only, am left alone." There is the gloom of 
deep darkness in that cry which came from the 
depths of a discouraged spirit. "I, only, am left 
alone." The prophets are slain; those who I 
God and sought to live in harmony with bis laws 

are DO more. The great masses of Israel have been 
turned away from their devotion to Cod; the}' have 
bowed down before Baal; "I, only, am left alone." 

Elijah was a strong man, but he was human; and 
no human being is strong enough to fight on forever 
against terrible odds, while he is conscious that lie is 
standing all alone. The human heart needs the sym- 
pathy of its kind. The moment that one comes to 
feel that he has no one to sympathize with him, no 
one to hold up his hands, no one on whom he can 
lean, and no one whom he can trust, he comes to be 
conscious of weakness; and it would not be strange 
if morbid melancholy and despondency take pos- 
session of him. I think it was this feeling of long- 
ing desire for human sympathy which led Jesus, in 
that hour of garden agony, to return from His 
prayer again, and again, and again, to the plac*. 1 
where His disciples had been left. lie needed them. 
The\' could not help Him. They could not push aside 



108 Magnetism of the Cross. 

the sword that was about to fall upon Him. They 
could not stay the hand that was lifting to His lips 
the cup which he must drain for the world's re- 
demption. But His human heart longed for their 
sympathy. And so it is with every one of us. The 
wise man has said, "Two is hotter than one, and a 
threefold cord can not be easily broken." Had 
Elijah only known that there were seven thousand 
good men and true who had not bowed the knee to 
Baal, and whose lips had not kissed his imago, 1 
am sure that he would not have quailed before the 

angry queen. The lack oi human sympathy makes 
men weak. The that there are others 

who sympathize with us, who love us. and who will 

stand by us to the bitter end, imparts and 

strength. We need Sympathy. ( others need it just 

•. one i if us is given 
the blessed privil some human life from 

failur will. Shall we tTJ it? Shall we 

speak the w< nCOUragement that we may and 

OUght t<> -peak, and in the day when they OUght to 
be Spi 'ken ? 

Elijah made a mistake when he came to 

the Conclusion that he was alone. The sun i^ al- 

- shining behind the cloud. God has never de- 
serted the world. Ours are not the only plans 



I M>i:k tm i: J i N LPER Tri 

the enlargement of the Kingdom, ( >urs are nol the 
onlj knees that press the earth in prayer. Th< 
arc other Churches besides the one to which we be- 
long. Others are winning victories while we are 
defeated. We are nol standing alone. When it is 
darkness in our neighborhood, the golden light is 
streaming through the open doors in Oriental 
clinics. There is a great army of men and women 
who arc praying for you, even though your face 
and name are unknown to them. You are not alone. 
God has an ever-increasing army of good men and 
women in the world ; their triumph is your victory. 
Take couage. God is not dead. 

" 'T is weary watching wave on wave, 

And yet the tide heaves onward ; 
We build like corals, grave on grave, 

But pave a pathway sunward. 
We Ye beaten back in many a fray, 

And yet new strength we borrow; 
For where the vanguard camps to-day, 

The rear will camp to-morrow.'' 

Again, it is probable that Elijah had underesti- 
mated his enemy while he cherished irrational ideas 
of success. Ahab, the king, had surrendered to his 

mighty influence. Jezebel was altogether another 
personage. She had come to Israel from a heathen 
land. She had no sympathy whatever with the wor- 



no Magnetism of Tin- Cross. 

ship of Jehovah. All the strength of her almost 
masculine nature had been given for the extension 
as well as the introduction of the religion of her 
native land. Hers was not only a volcanic nature, 
but persistently she moved forward to the accom- 
plishment of the purposes upon which her volcanic 
nature had set itself. To underestimate an enemy is 
sure to bring- disaster. That was the awful 
mistake made I the North and the South dur- 

ing the Civil War. Russia underestimated Japan and 
suffered bitterly ii quence. No great enemy 

was ever crushed by one defeat. Many a man is 
underestimating tl I rum. lie thinks he 

can drink when he wants to and quit when he 
pleases. This blunder will be the ruination { )i him. 
Elijah ought to 1 ed that he would hear 

froitl Jezebel again. Y<>u will hear from the bad 
hal : have tried t<> Conquer. 'P of your 

at temptation will be seen again in the darkm 
Be n<>t surprised. Be ready for the next move of 
your apparently vanquished foe. Elijah thought 
that the campaign had been w< ffl when <»n Carmel 

the people shouted. "The Lord, He is the God/ 1 He 
at truth that conversion is one thing 

and a new life quite another. He was elated by his 
success on the mountain, and that elation made the 



I ' M'l.u in i: Juniper-Tri r 1 1 

m< 'iv terrible, when n< we of th< >se 
who had joined in the shout on Carmel gath< 
around him to strengthen his hand against the 
wrathful queen. Had the old prophet known more 
of human nature he would have been prepared for 
this indifferent silence. It is one thing to be for 
God when the multitudes arc taking that stand, and 
another thing to remain at the post of duly when 
the tide is all against us. It is one thing to 
Amen to the pastor's sermon, and another thing to 
crystallize it into life. Then, again, it must be re- 
membered that all reforms are not the work of a 
day, but of years and of centuries. Elijah thought 
that idolatry had been overthrown when lie gained 
that decisive victory on Carmel. It was only a single 
fort that had been taken. The years move slowly. 
Great mural conquests arc made only after years 
of struggling. For centuries the seeds of idolatry 
had been sown in the land. Israel had taken les- 

in Egypt. They had come in contact with the 
idolatry of the Canaanites, and, last of all, the Zidon- 
ian queen had brought into the land the supersti- 

and degradations of hei native country. Could 

it be possible that the results of all this could be 

eradicated in a day? It was impossible. Long 

s must pass. One prophet after another must 



ii2 Magnetism of the Cros 

speak to the people of God. One wave of provi- 
dence must follow another. The people must be 
borne away into captivity on the mighty tide waves 
of misfortune before the final triumph over idolatry 
could be won. ai I before the Jew could go into all 
the world bearing- his sublime monotheism for the 
conquests of the reli systems of all the ages. 

Here is r us. We must not ex- 

pect too much in a day. It is a grand thing that we 
have surrendered our hearts and lives to the man of 

Nazareth, l\ 'and thing that we have set (Mu- 

ch' »ice on the spiritual and eternal. It is a magnifi- 
cent beginning, but we must not Confound begin- 
nings with endings. Man}- a mar 1 that jusi 

beeau>e he has been converted the temptations and 

trials of oth uld not COme back t<> him. 

They will e The hal f-c< 'iKjiured habits will 

Strug in 6 >r the rem;: ul. The 

demon of appetite will spring upon you in some 
careless moment There is no discharge in the war 

the crown of immortality. The tree of doubt 
may have hem cut down, but another is likely to 

spring the roots. The devil dogged the foot- 

S of the : I to the last hour of His life. 

The conflict against evil is unending. If we thor- 
oughly learn this we may be saved from at 

least one juniper-tree experiem 



m»i:k thi: Ji N1PEH TlU I I ;> 

Lei us not be discouraged and give up in de- 
spair because we have made so little \ 
Growth is a slow process; it takes Cod centuries 

tO make an oak-tree. It took Mini ages to make the 

world. Character does not come in a night. The 

perfection of maturity is the result of victorious 
struggle for years. Heaven is not readied by a 
single bound. It is a long and painful march to 
the summit of the ideals. Do not be discouraged, 
but keep pegging away. That is the secret of coro- 
nation. 

If having tried to understand the philosophy of 
weak hours, we read again the story to learn how 
God treated the discouraged prophet, we shall come 
to a very sweet and comforting revelation ; and 
at the same time be helped to see how we should 
treat those who are groaning in bitterness of spirit 
beneath the juniper-tree. 

God did not scold His disconsolate servant. That 
would have broken his heart. Elijah was bitterly 
conscious of his failure. It was not necessary to 
send an angel to remind him of that. You must 
not kick a man when he is down. Do not find fault 
with a man who is humiliated, chagrined, tortured 
by a sense of defeat, and who thinks he has not a 
friend in the world. That is to trample upon the 



ii4 Magnetism ok the Cross. 

heart of an already crushed man. Xote what God 
did for the runaway prophet. He did not scold 
him and cast him off because he was weak and had 
fault. He showed Elijah that heaven was still his 
friend. While he slept, lo, an angel came to him. 
Kindly, gently, lovingly, the angelic messenger 
touched the weary, disconsolate, sleeping prophet, 
and said: "Elijah, arise and tat." That is all ; and 
then the vision vanished and the prophet awoke to 
find a cake and CTUSe of water at his head. Again 
he slept, and again the vision of infinite tenders 

stood by his side. Again the angel whispered, 
"Elijah, arise and eat; the journey is too great for 
thee;" and he awoke and found once more supplies 
awaiting the time of his need. What a revelation 
that must have been to him ! 

Cod did r I the prophet then. The time 

came when I* not unmindful 

of his failure, hut He waited till the man had re- 
ined heart before He criticised. When the Tish- 
bite had rested ; when he had c< >me to himself; when 
the tides of power had risen again in his soul, God 
demanded, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" "You 
are My chosen one. You ought not to he squander- 
ing golden moments here in pur; inactivity. 
Get up and go to work." The scolding is all right 






I \\ih.k tiii: Jin iti.k Tku:. i i j 

in its place; but it is all wrong oul of place. M 
a disc d man ilimk he can do something be- 

fore you give him new plans. You musl feed and 
\ clothe the hungry before you can preach t<> them. 
A vacation for a worn-oul man is better than theol- 
A week in the country may be the very besl 

kind in" a gospel, 1 1 you find a man under a jnni; 
tree do not find fault with him. Do not tell him 
Why he failed, or that he failed. lie needs kind- 
ness, not criticism. He needs sympathy, a friendly 
word, and a helping hand. He needs to feel that 
the change is in himself and not in God nor in his 
friends. Make him feel that. Hold up his hands. 
Beat back the tide waves that have set against him; 
and then, when he is strong, when he has overcome 
the temptation, when he is clothed and in his right 
mind, when he is rested, when he has reached the 
Mount of God, then you may correct, suggest, criti- 
cise, give him new plans, and scold if need be. But 
let us learn from God's treatment of the runaway, 
discouraged prophet never to find fault and criti- 
cise people in the hour of weakness. It is useless 
to say to the man who is down, "I told you so." 
Help him up. Let the past go, at least for the pres- 
ent. Help him to solid rock, and then you can lov- 



n6 Magnetism of the Cross. 

ingly, tenderly, and successfully point out the path 
in which he ought to walk. 

What a kindly revelation we find in the words, 
"The journey is too great for thee!" It is as if 
Jehovah said, "Without Me ye can do nothing, but 
with Me ye can do all things. Lean on Me. Take 
hold of My hand. Be filled with the power of My 
Spirit. There is a fountain of strength for yon." 
We can not win the fight alone. The power of any 
nistn is the measure of the force that has been 

taken in: .1 without. Civilization is the meas- 

ure of the force that man has appropriated. Peo- 
ples who reject the might of steam, electricity, the 
falling water, the lever and the fulcrum remain sav- 
The reformer who does not join hands with 

will find himself, & K >ner or later, under some 

juniper-tree. The soul that tri< aquer in his 

own strength will surely he crushed? If we fail, 
the fault will he our own. We are in the midst of 
an infinite ocean of power. If we appropriate the 
might of Jehovah we can not fail. Then, too, we 
need to learn, as Elijah did, that Cod works quietly, 
without n<. use and shouting, lie was not in the 
earthquake, the mighty wind, nor yet in the devas- 
tating fire. He is not specially in the noise and tu- 
mult of excitement and confusion. It is the "still 



I ' nder in •' Juniper Tri i 17 

small void-" of holy, persistent, helpful, Christlike 
living thai reveals the presence of ( Jod, charms nun 
to I lim, and wins lasting \ icto >r 

But, best of all, God gave to the discouraged 

man a new commission and a new rail to duty. Thai 

wa^ proof that Jehovah trusted him and thought 

that he could yet win some of the grandest victories 
of his life. After the still small voice come the words 
that ring like the blast of a trumpet: "Go, return 

on thy way by the wilderness of Damascus/' God 
did not reject Elijah because, in a time of great de- 
pression, he ran away from the post of duty. There 
was work for him to do. God trusted him. You 
have failed, surrendered to the enemy and deserted 
the post of duty, but God has not ceased to love 
you. He trusts you. You can do something- for 
Him. "Go ; return on thy way." There is work, 
but you can not find it where you are. Hazael and 
Jehu could not be anointed in the wilderness. Jesus 
could not redeem the world and remain in heaven. 
The heathen can not be reached by dreaming in 
American parlors. The unsaved can not be brought 
to God simply by joining in forms of worship in 
some gorgeous temple. Lost sheep can not be 
brought home by sighing at the door of empty folds. 
Go, find the place of duty, and then do your best. 



n8 Magnetism of the Cross. 

Some of the grandest work of the old prophet was 
done after that day of discouragement and failure. 
Get up and go to work. The future may be better 
than the past. 

Work is the best medicine for a discouraged man 
after he has had sympathy and rest. You will find 
strength in action. "The standing- pool breeds 
miasma and har 1 ." The running- 

brook k< If pure, while it journeys to the 

the Creator. When 

one can not work he can not be normal. I do not 
wonder that John the Baptizer became despondent 

and was filled with doubt as he was condemned to 

purposeless inactivity in th ty old cast] 

Makor. 1 do not wonder that Jerome of Prague 

red when the walls of the dungeon at Constance 

I about him. The kindness of Jehovah is ulti- 

Diated in that H from under the juniper- 

tree with a new commission for a larger work. 

Do God has not changed. 

Your friends have not changed. The sun is shin- 
loud. Do not leave the field of bat- 
tle because you have been once defeated. Some of 
's workers havt their best after failure. 

"Sire, the day is lost," said a marshal to Napoleon 

during one vi the terrible battles of that celebrated 



1 \i'!:u Til i; JUNIPER-TR] i [9 

Italian campaign. "Yes," calmly replied the great 
commander, "we have losl one battle, but there is 
time enough to win another b unset." He 

gave new orders, inspired his men as he only could, 
redoubled his efforts, routed the enemy and gained 

the day. You may have lost One battle, but there- 
is time enough to win another before sunset. You 

may have deserted the post of duty, but God loves 

you, "Return on thy way by the wilderness of 
Damascus/ 9 Trust God. Do thy best, and thou 
wilt yet crown kings and anoint prophets ; and, best 
of all, thou wilt find one of God's chariots waiting 
for you in the gathering twilight. 



VI. 

THE DEBT OF POWER. 

"For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this 
time, then shall there enlargement and deliver- 

anc ! to the Jews from another place; but 

thou and thy father s house shall be destroyed: 
and who knoweth whether thou art not come to 
the kingdom for such a time as this? 'Then 
Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, 
. . . ill I go in unto the King, which is 

to the law; and if I perisli, I 
perish." — Esth. iv, 14- 

Bsther w i upon the throne I [ere was a 

very | caltation, if we judge after the manner 

of men. Here, with the crown on her brow, was 
a Jewess; a member ptive and enslaved race; 

an orphan, who. just a little time ago, wa> the re 
puted daughter of a common porter. Does this 
seem strange? It looks bo. But hold, we must not 

judge an event till the whole truth is known. A 

120 



Tm. Debi i 'i' Power. i 21 

life can not be tested till every hour has pa 
Ther< mething hark of the elevation concern- 

ing which we have read. God does not choose ac- 
cording to the wisdom of men. 

:1kt sat Upon the throne, and soon made some 

very important discoveries. She saw that attain- 
ment <\ik'< not satisfy the human heart. Man 

climbs to the very topmost round of the ladder of 
fame and favor, and then reaches into the infinities 
beyond, the while restlessness and misery are ever 
active in the temple of the soul. In the royal palace 
a man named I laman, before whom everybody 
ed save the little Jew who sat at the gate of the 
king. Hainan was just one bow short. That was 
all. He had everything else in the kingdom. He 
was one bow short, and that lack begat within him 
a spirit which ruined his life. Driven on by ambi- 
tion and unsatisfied longing he resolved that Mor- 
decai and all his people should die. The decree was 
signed and sealed with the king's ring; and every- 
body said that the Jews must perish. No, not every- 
body. Mordecai said that they must not. But who 
was he? Only one of the despised race. What 
could he do? Nothing, surely. The decree was 
aimed at him in particular. To what purpose, then, 
was it that he said that the Jews must not perish? 



122 Magnetism of the Cross. 

But there was another who said the same thing. 
Who? God. Hainan had made his calculations 
without taking God into the account. That has been 
the mistake of other men beside Hainan. It is very 
foolish to plan without taking God into our thought. 
Yes, God said that the Jews must not perish, and 
God and one faithful man make a majority against 
the world, Mordecai hoped in Cod, but he knew 

that He works through human agencies. Then the 

truth flashed upon him like a gleam i^i light. There 

ther, God had raised her to the throne. 

That exaltation must have been for a great purpose. 

What 'iild God have had in mind 

than the salvation of His chosen people? Mordecai 

went to Esther. She hesitated. 1 do no! wonder. 

The move might COSl her her life. And then she 

could be of no service to anybody. Everybody 

knew that it was death to gO before the king un- 
bidden. It was an awful hour. Mordecai felt that 

Esther had I ised up by Jehovah to meet this 

supn rgency. His conviction was born of an 

inner light After reciting to her the whole story, 

he made the burning appeal of the text. The truth 

came to Esther with the flashlight of conviction; 

and as truth never loses its power, we may hope 
that it will to-day burn in otir souls like coals of liv- 
ing hre. 



Tin: Debt <>r Power. 

The reverent student of history comes to beli 
that God has planned and worked to the end that 
in ever) crisis hour, when the interest oJ Mis cause 
and kingdom are at stake, lie might have men and 

WOmen providentially at the post of duty, who 

would live and sacrifice for truth and victory. 

"There is a divinity that shapes our ends, 
RjQUgh hew them how we may." 

There is such a thing- as the hand oi God in 
human history. 

God is never surprised. Whenever a crisis hour 
has come there lias always been a man standing in 
the forefront of the battle, armed with the very best 
weapons of his age, ready to lead his followers on 
to victory. The tides of life may ebb and flow, but 
the rise is sure and steady. When man by his wick- 
edness had so corrupted the streams of life that God 
saw that the only chance for the best was to begin 
again, and one was needed who could stand alone in 
the midst of the wickedness of his age and hold on 
to God with a steady hand in the darkness ; then 
Noah was at the post of duty ready for the crisis. 
When the time had come for Jehovah to separate 
to himself a people to whom he could give laws. 
types, ceremonies, and Scriptures, that were to be 



124 Magnetism of the Cross. 

the schoolmasters of the ages, then in Ur of the 
Chaldees was found a man who saw so deeply into 
the mysteries of God, and chose the truth so loyally, 
that he became the father of Israel, and the "friend 
of God." When the years of famine were devastat- 
ing the land, and Israel must go down into Egypt 
for bread, they found there one who had reached 
the throne by way of a dungeon, into which fra- 
ternal hatred and human wickedness had thrust him, 
and who thus had power to save the chosen people 
in the hour of supreme need. When the four hun- 
dred years of bondage were over, and the hour had 
come in which God's people should find deliverance 
and begin the journey to the land of promise, 
there was Moses, a man skilled in all the wisdom 
of the Egyptians, prepared to he the deliverer of 
hks people, the father of history, and the lawgiver 
of the ages. When the fullness of time had been 
Ushered in, and the Son Of God was incarnated and 
had purchased human redemption by the sacrifice of 
Himself; when the hour had come when the gospel 
must he preached to the ends of the earth and the 
Gentiles made partakers of its gracious benefits, 
then Saul <>f Tarsus was at hand, lie was a man 
schooled in the language and spirit of the dominant 
civilization, who. also, had added Greek to Jewish 



Tin. 1 )i.i;i «)!•' | \»\\ i.k. 125 

culture, and was moved by an enthusiasm which 
prompted him to traverse t w * > continents to preach 
the way of life to dying men. When fifteen hun- 
dred years had passed, and the mistake of wedding 
the Church to the State was bearing the fruits of 
superstition, immorality, religious tyranny, bigotry, 
and all manner of wickedness, then God had a man 
prepared for the hour. Martin Luther came, pro- 
claimed his theses, preached the old Gospel with 
new power, printed his Bible, remolded the Ger- 
man people and brought about the great Reforma- 
tion. When two centuries more had passed away, 
and the Church had lapsed again into cold formal- 
ism ; when the seeds of English Deism had been 
planted, and French infidelity and German rational- 
ism were the harvest ; when gross immorality and 
outbreaking wickedness characterized those who af- 
fected to be the religious leaders and instructors 
of the people, then the eye of the world was fas- 
tened upon three men. Whence came the Wesleys 
and Whitefield, if God did not raise them up to meet 
such a crisis as comes but once in a thousand years? 
They preached the old Gospel with a new power, 
secured a return to the evangelistic methods of the 
apostolic days, set in motion a tide wave of experi- 
mental religion that will roll on to the end of time, 



126 Magnetism of the Cross. 

saved the State and infused a new life into the 
Church. They were men of God, who met the needs 
of the hour as God-sent men always do. When the 
new world had been discovered, and a place found in 
which the problems that would make for a new civil- 
ization could be solved, where the tree of civil and 
religious liberty might best flourish for the good of 
the downtrodden of the whole earth, and when the 
events were ripe for one of the greatest movements 
of the ages, then God had a seed prepared for the 
planting from which a noble harvest might be ex- 
L We see Jehovah sowing the soil of the new 
world with the Puritans, the Dutch, the Huguenots, 
and the Quakers. These all were men who loved 

lom and were ready to die for it; who hated 

tyranny, and yd respected the rights of their fdlow- 

ni( o ; wh<> believed the Bible and were interested in 

the enlightenment of the intellect and the enthrone- 
ment science, and who counted not their live.- 

dear unto themselves so thai the sacred can- 
humanity might be advanced. They must have 
been at the post of duty because God had been pre- 
paring them against the day of need. In like man- 
ner Washington came f<>r an hour when none but 
•sent men could do the work that must be done 
to prevent the turning back of the shadow on the 



Tii i: I )i;i;r otf POWER. 
miii dial of pn >greSS. And in like manner, also, wlirn 

the dark] preat confusion had come; when the 

tumuli of the irrepressible conflict was filling the 

land; when the shadow of an immense fear cast its 
m over all hearts and men trembled as they 

looked at the frowning clouds that filled onr national 

.sky, and feared that the beginning of the end of the 

Union had come, then (\in\ had a man at the helm 
of the Ship of State, who, with the tenderness of a 
woman and the strength of a giant, bore upon his 
shoulders the sum of a nation's burdens, and in his 
heart the sum of a nation's griefs; while he said to 
redhanded treason, "Lav not thine hand upon the 
Goddess," and to the oppressor of an enslaved race, 
"Let my people go free." 

When the times of need are come, God always 
has at hand men and women who are prepared to 
live and die, as well as to win glorious victories for 
His name and the advancement of His kingdom. 
That is the law. Mordecai felt that there was a 
great need pressing upon his people. One of that 
le had come to the throne. It must have been 
that God had been planning for this exaltation 
against this time of need. And so he had. There 
2S such a thing as the hand of God in history. 

We have come to a time of greatest need. The 



128 Magnetism of the Cross. 

battle of the giants is raging all about us. This is 
an age of great cities. The tides of life are pouring 
into our urban centers. Here the problems of the 
future are to be solved. Here the power of Chris- 
tianity is to be tested as it never has been before. 
Can the religion of the cross save the cities? If it 
can not, the beginning of the end of our civilization 
is at hand. In our great cities are massed the forces 
that are antagonistic both to Church and State. 
Tk-iv poverty as well as wickedness is congested. 
Here the wretched exist, but can not be said to live. 
TIere the forces of evil are gathered together. Here 
the rum power is doing its deadliest work. Here 
are found the slum districts, the sweatshop in its 
S| form, great festering cesspools of moral cor- 
ruption, and the inspiration to violence and anarchy, 
the enemies of the home are most rampant, 
vice walks abroad in the light of the clearest 

lay. Can the gospel of the Son of God Bave 

these 5ted centers of life? That is a tremen- 

dous problem. This IS an age of great social and in- 
dustrial revolutions. It will not be wise to close our 
to the truth. Mighty tide waves of agitation 
have started up in Europe that are breaking upon 
these Western shores. The masses are crying for 
rights as they cry for bread. It is thought, in some 



Th i: I )em i >r Power. i 29 

quarters, that the Church does not care for the 

Jesus Christ always did. The Church al- 
ways must One of the questions with which we 
stand face to face is this, How can the Church cross 

the gulf that yawns between it and the ma 

That gulf must be crossed. Who will lead the way? 
There are storm centers in our national as well as 
our social sky. It is an age of agitation. It is an 

age of unrest, doubt, and fear. The Church must 
arouse herself and make the great, needy, dying 
^vorld feel that she has the Spirit of Christ. It is 
an age of transformation. It is an age when people 
care little about creed or orthodoxy, but when im- 
mense stress is laid upon life. Men are looking to 
see the Divine, not in creeds, but in the actions of 
those who profess to be followers of the meek and 
lowly Son of man who went about doing good. The 
religion of the future must have power to transform 
life and make it Christlike. That is what men are 
demanding and hoping for. This is an age of great 
world movements. Doors of opportunity are open 
before the Church in all lands. The civilization of 
the entire Orient will change within a few years. 
Shall the new r civilization be Christian or semi-infi- 
del ? The Dark Continent is stretching its hands 
westward for help. How shall we answer the plead- 
9 



130 Magnetism of the Cross. 

ing cry? The world is asking for the Gospel. Shall 
we respond to the plea of a dying world? Do you 
say yes? I beg you to remember that if the world 
is to hear the Gospel, men and money must freely 
be laid upon the altars of God. What answer will 
the Church give to these burning questions? It is 
an age of civic as well as social reforms. It is an 
age when men are demanding that the kingdom of 
God shall stand for everything that makes for a 
better life. It is an age of race problems, of social 

ties, of industrial tempests and moral whirl- 
winds. This IS surely an age of such immense needs 

as have not presented themselves to the Church since 

JeSUS Christ unit home to heaven. 

We have seen that God has an answer for every 
crisis. We have seen, also, thai His answer has al- 

- been men and women whom he has inspired 
to move tO the front and do His work. God's an- 
swer to the immense crisis which is at hand must be 
found in the devoted lives of His Consecrated chil- 
dren. You may be a part of His answer if you will. 
God needs yOtL He wants you. He is calling you. 
There is a great work to be done. You can do & 
of it. What will be your answer to the call of the 
Infinite ? 

The children of God are raised up, not for them- 



Tn i: Deb? 0* Power* 131 

selves alt Mir. but, ver) largely, for the sake of what 
they can do to forward the interests of the kingdom 
of God. That was certainly the conception that 
Mordecai had of the matter. It is as if he had said 
sther, "You do not suppose that Go I raised you 

to tlic throne of the greatest monarch of the known 

world for your Own sake? Yon do not suppose that 
your exaltation is due to the fact that God loves you 
more than he loves the humblest Jewess in the far- 
thest corner of the great empire? It must be true 
that you were raised to the throne because you could 
be of some great service to the cause of God and 
your people." That is what Mordecai thought. 
Great blessings, heavenly visions, lofty genius, spe- 
cial revelations and advantages have not been given 
primarily for the sake of the men and women to 
whom they came. The prophets did not prophesy 
for themselves, nor yet alone for the age in which 
they lived. The lofty visions of Isaiah, the gleams 
of glory that came to Moses on the Mount, the sor- 
rowful strains of Ezekiel, the mighty w r ork of Elijah, 
the revelations that were made to Daniel, were by 
no means for themselves. Does any one suppose 
that the old blind bard of Greece sang his match- 
less songs for himself? Was the lofty genius of 
riato and Aristotle given that these men alone might 



132 Magnetism of the Cross. 

enjoy bliss of reveling in the deep mysteries of phi- 
losophy? Is it not rather to be supposed that they 
were endowed with genius that the world might 
know the truth? Did Dante have visions of celes- 
tial wisdom for Dante's sake? Did Raphael paint 
for himself? Was the genius of Michael Angelo for 
himself or the world? Was it to gratify Michael 
Angelo that power was given him to hang the dome 
of St. Peter's in midair, to carve the "Moses" 
and paint the "Last Judgment" on the ceilings of 

the Sistine chapel? No, he wrought for the world. 
Will anybody believe that Columbus was led on to 
the discovery of the New World for his own profit? 

He got little out of the discovery. lie was 

brought in chains from the land which he 

i the map of the world. The name 

of another v. iven to that land. But the 

discover y was a glorious achievement. It brought 
to light a BOll of virgin possibilities! and revealed a 

land where the problems of modern civilization 

could best he solved Surely the genius of Colum- 
bus was not for the great Genoese, hut for human- 
it}'. As we >tand in the immense libraries of the 
world; as we think of the reading millions; as we 
call to mind the thousand and one agencies that 
have been developed for human enlightenment, can 



Tin: Debt o* Power, 133 

we think for a moment thai to Gutenburg was given 
a vision of the printing press for his own sake? 
No man was ever lifted to a throne for his own 

sake alone. He is one only of the many millions 

who arc to be blessed because of the elevation. This 
IS a truth which we need to apprehend. We are 
what we are and where we are, not because Gk)d loves 
US better than he loves others; not because we are 

the special favorites of heaven, but because we can 
do the more for humanity. Are you rich ? Have 
you the gift of a special genius? Have you the 
power to influence men? Are you gifted with the 
ability of song? Are you able to direct large enter- 
prises and marshal immense forces for victory? 
Have you been able to secure a splendid education? 
Have you time to read ? Have you at command the 
means to secure a great library? Have you been 
chosen to fill some exalted position in Church or 
State? Have you the genius for leadership? Think- 
not that all this has come about, or any of it has 
come about, simply because God wanted to serve 
and reward you. Men who use their exaltation sim- 
ply to serve themselves are traitors both to God 
and humanity. Men and women are raised to 
thrones for the sake of the work they can do. Have 
you been raised to anv throne whatsoever? I beg 



134 Magnetism of the Cross. 

you to remember that the exaltation is to the end 
that you may be a blessing to the world. 

If we fail to meet the crisis for which we have 
been raised to the throne; if we fail to do the work 
for which God has commissioned us; if we live for 
selfish ends, we shall be the greatest losers. It 
was a very solemn truth to which Mordecai gave ut- 
terance when he said, "If thou altogether boldest 
thy peace at this time, then shall enlargement and 

deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, 
but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.' 1 

If we fail t0 meet the crisis and do the work for 
which we hav< been raised to the throne sonic one 

else will be delegated to take our place. The pages 

of history are written over with the story of rejected 
ministries. Cod's work mu>t go on, but we shall 
Miffer loss. We must use Or lose. That is the law 

of tin- universe. If Saul will use the kingdom for 

selfish ends, it will be taken from him and given to 
David. If you will not make use of your opportu- 
nities, God will take them away from you. If you 

can give a testimony and will not, the experience 

back of the testimony will become a thing" of the 
past If you have a song to sin-' and will not sing 
it, the power to sing will be taken away. You know 
whv the "Dead Sea" came to be the Dead Sea. All 



Tin; l > i . i -. 1 » •!•• Power. 

rivers Bow into it, and none flow out That is the 
secret of dead souls, as well as dead seas. Selfish- 
ness is sure to be self-destruction. But while we 
suffer lo>s the cause of God will not fail. Saul may 
be a traitor to Jehovah, but the kingdom will be 
given to David, who will be faithful to the divine 
call. Stephen may go down into the grave, but out 
of the influences that spring from that grave will 
come Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, who 
will be aWe to do more for the cause of Jesus Christ 
than Stephen ever could have done. John Brown 
may hang* above the quaking soil of Old Virginia, 
but Abraham Lincoln will come after him, and the 
race that was held for two hundred years in bond- 
age shall be made free. God's cause will conquer. 

" Truth forever on the scaffold, 

Wrong forever on the throne; 
But that scaffold sways the future, 

And behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, 

Keeping watch above His own." 

The price of victory is a sublime consecration of 
ourselves for that victory. Esther said : "Fast and 
pray for me three days, and then I will go in to the 
king; and if I perish, I perish." She won the vic- 
tory by giving herself. That is forever the price 



136 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

that must be paid. There is a sublime scene pic- 
tured for us in the Gospels. Jesus is hanging on 
the cross. The chief priests and elders have pre- 
vailed. They have the Galilean in their power. He 
can never trouble them more, so they think. He 
is paying the price of his ambition with his blood. 
The men who have entrapped him stand at the 
foot of the cross to watch the agonies of their suf- 
fering victim. As the}- look on, they say, as if in 
derision, and as if it were an utterance that proved 
beyond the possibilities of doubt that they were 
right and he wa> wrong, "lie saved others. Himself 
He can not save." They have come to the conclu- 
sion that, as lie could not save Himself lie never 
saved anybody else, and, therefore, he must be a 

fraud. Little do these men know of the plan of sal- 
vation, and as little of the true philosophy of life. 
If Jesus had saved Himself He COUld not have saved 

any one else. He put away sin by the sacrifice of 
Himself. This law holds for men as well as it did 
for the Son of God. The man who avoids his Cal- 
vary can not save any one else. We can serve God 
only when we give ourselves. Esther won because 
she threw herself at the feet of the king for deliver- 
ance or death. The Master said: "If any man will 
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
cross and follow Me." 



Tm; Debt o* Powkr. [37 

The pi ire of victory is a sublime consecration. 
And what is Consecration? It is not a sentiment. 

It is not a song. In the olden times the liegeman 

knelt before his Lord ami said. "I now devote my- 
self to thee, for life and limb and all earthly re- 
gard." That was consecration. When the forces 
of the English under Edward HI had invested Ca- 
lais, and all hope that the city might be saved was 
taken away, then, at the suggestion of Edward, six 
of the noblest of the town went out to the conquer- 
ing king, bareheaded, barefooted, with halters about 
their necks, and knelt at the feet of their conqueror, 
and said that they gave themselves to him to be 
treated as he pleased to treat them, on condition 
that he would spare the city. That was consecra- 
tion. When the Sioux Indians swept over Western 
Minnesota in the summer of 1862, with flaming 
torch and gleaming tomahawk, they sacked and 
burned a certain settlement. Among those who es- 
caped immediate death were two brothers, — the one 
about twelve and the other three years of age. It 
was a terrible experience for those lads. They were 
left alone. They knew that there was a fort, some 
eighty miles away, which would give them protec- 
tion if they could only reach it. But eighty miles 
was a long distance. The little three-year-old could 



138 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

not travel so far over the rough roads. What could 
they do? What did they do? The older boy could 
not bear the thought of escaping alone and leaving 
his little brother, either to starve or be slaughtered 
by the savage foe. What could he do? He took 
the little fellow on his shoulders ; and over the long 
reach of rough roads; through the sharp prairie 
grasses ; in the darkness of the night ; in hunger and 
weariness, he carried the hoy to the fort. That was 
consecration. When the last hour of the awful bat- 
tle of Waterloo had come, and it was soon to be 
decided whether the star of Napoleon was to set in 
gloom or to rise higher and higher, to shine with 
greater and more lasting brilliancy, grand old Mar- 
shal Xey ordered up the ( Md Guard. At the word 
/of command, they moved forward, with waving 
- and -learning >abi\s. But, ere they reached 
the place where the forces of the Iron Duke were 
drawn up tO receive them, they came suddenly upon 
a deep ditch that yawned in their path. What did 
they do? The victory must he won or the battle lost 
within a lew minutes. The Old Guard had never 
been known to falter. They did not falter then. 
The foremost riders spurred into the ditch, and filled 
it with the bodies of horses and men, and thus 
bridged it fur the passage of their comrades, who 



Th i; Debt o* low br« 

rode forward to join in that awful combat with the 
giants of England who formed the invincible 
squares at the summit of the hill. That was con 
cration. Consecration is self-surrender. It is tak- 
ing our lives in our hand to go forward, to do the 
work for which God has sent us. You remember 
the dosing chapter of "Ben Ilur." The young Jew 
had come to be the richest subject in the world. He 
had often wondered how he could use his money in 
the service of his new-found king. One night, as 
he stood with his young wife on the roof of their 
palace in Antioch, word came that a storm of bitter- 
est persecution had burst upon the Christians at 
Rome. A truth flashed upon him. Here was an 
opportunity to do something for the king who had 
come and gone. The Romans would not molest a 
tomb. He would go to Rome, and dig vast galler- 
ies in the heart of the earth beneath the city or its 
suburbs. These galleries should serve as the tombs 
of the saints. But he would make them something 
more than tombs. He would build in them chapels 
where the hunted Christians might worship God. 
There they might find shelter and thus religion 
would be kept alive until the storm of persecution 
had passed away. Ben Hur went to Rome, ex- 
pended vast sums of money and made a refuge for 



140 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

the Church during those days of storm. From that 
refuge she came forth, when the storm had passed, 
to rule the world in the interest of humanity. That 
was consecration. That was a sublime act, but a 
sublimer one may be witnessed to-day, as, conscious 
of your mission, you consecrate yourselves to God 
and go from this sacred hour to live for him who has 
called you into the conflict that is to end in certain 
victory. 



VII. 
.MODERN JEHUS. 

"The driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of 
Ximshi, for lie driveth furiously/' — 2 Kings 
ix, 20. 

A WATCHMAN stood on the round tower of Jeho- 
rani's palace at Jezreel, scanning the horizon in 
every direction. Presently he saw a cloud of dust 
rising along the highway, far to the east, at the 
point where the road wound upward from the Jor- 
dan Valley to the plain of Jezreel. Instantly he was 
on the alert. That cloud might mean weal, or it 
might mean woe. The army of the king was en- 
gaged with the siege of Ramoth-gilead. That ris- 
ing cloud might mean that the Syrian army had 
been conquered ; and it might mean that the broken 
fragments of the royal forces were in wild flight 
before a victorious foe. Word was sent to the king, 
who at once dispatched a messenger to meet the ap- 

141 



142 Magnetism of the Cross. 

proaching cloud and ask, "Is it peace ? v He went 
but did not return. Another rider was sent forth 
to ask the same question. He also came not again. 
By this time the cloud of dust had approached so 
near that the trained eye of the watchman could 
make out many of the component parts of the caval- 
cade which swept on beneath it. There, at the very 
front, was seen a chariot drawn by four dashing 
steeds. They were white with foam, and yet the 
driver urged them on. There was no mistaking the 
meaning of that reckless driving. Over at Ramoth- 
gilead, in charge of the king's army, was one who 

known in the camp as the macl driver. This 
must be he. There was none Other in all Israel who 
would drive at that dashing pace. Word was at 
once Sent to the king, '"The driving is like the driv- 

i Jehu, for he driveth furiously." This single 
sentence intr :he commander-in-chief to us in 

such a way as to give us a clear insight into his 
character. We shall not be surprised at anything 
which we read in the narrative concerning Jehu after 
this introduction. 

The career of this man brings before us two 
distinct lines of truth that may be studied to 
great advantage. The word which is here trans- 
lated "furiously" suggests some characteristics 



Modern Jkhi 143 

which arc noble, and some thai arc ignoble; while 
it indicates one line <^i* conduct that ought to be 

shunned, and another that may well be copied. 

Whether zeal, impetuosity, and activity along the 
line of our purpose suggest destroying madnes 

divine inspiration, depends wholly on the spirit that 
prompts the action. There is an impetuosity that 
is born of confidence and conviction, or of the neces- 
sity of heroic action. There is also an impetuosity 
that is horn of foolhardy recklessness that borders, at 
times, on madness. There are Jehus in modern life. 
He is a reckless driven who gives rein to ex- 
travagance and prodigality. These are steeds that 
have hurried many a man to ruin. If you are spend- 
ing more money than you earn, you are living the 
life of the prodigal, no matter whether the bills 
foot up to $25 a month or $2,500. The prodigal 
of the Scriptures found himself clothed in tatters 
and rags, friendless and alone in a far country, in 
time of awful famine, because he spent more than 
he earned ; or, perhaps, because he spent and did not 
earn at all. The man who in health, and under fa- 
vorable circumstances, spends more than he earns, or 
even all that he earns, is driving recklessly towards 
a precipice. You can not always hope to be well. 
The demon of disease will, by and by, fasten his 



144 Magnetism of the Cross. 

grip upon you, or upon those you love; and in that 
hour you may find yourselves sadly in need of the 
money you have spent with a prodigal hand. The 
time may come when a short journey to the moun- 
tains or to the sea would save a life that is strangely 
dear to you. That journey can not be taken because 
of prodigality that ought not to have been permitted. 
You have employment to-day, but the time may 
come when depression in business will throw you 
out of work, no matter how faithful you have been 
to your employers. And you know what that will 
mean. By and by, your boy will be old enough to go 
away to school. If you could give him a little help 
he would get on magnificently, and secure prepara- 
tion for his life work such as would bring him 
marked success. But you can not help him, when 
that supreme hour of Opportunity comes, if you 
spend all that ymi earn to-day. By and by you will 
be too old to work. This is the age of young men. 
It is pitiable to see how men, who arc by no means 
old, are crowded out. Men who are not more than 
fifty or fifty-five years of age have come to me again 
and again to say that it was impossible to get work. 
They had gone to one place of business after an- 
other only to hear the same word of refusal, "You 
are too old. We need and must have young men of 



Modern Jehi [45 

•• and push or we can not compete with other 
business men. M You are vigorous and active now, 
hut in a little while ynu will have crossed the dead 
line; and you will be pushed aside as others arc to- 
day- Day after to-morrow you will be old. And 
what will you do when the flakes of eternity are fly- 
ing, if you have nothing laid aside against that time 
of need? Rainy days are sure to come. Times of 
depression are sure to come. Days of sickness and 
are sure to come. Old age is sure to come. 
And he is a reckless driver who speeds on thought- 
lessly, carelessly, furiously toward those days with- 
out making preparation for their coming. 

He who spends more than he makes is sure to 
find himself exposed to an awful temptation. There 
are hundreds in this city who have yielded to temp- 
tation, such as they never would have listened to but 
for the fact that they found themselves overwhelmed 
with debt, because they had given rein to ex- 
travagance and prodigality. These steeds have 
drawn many a man to ruin. They may draw you to 
the precipice. Extravagance and prodigality have 
led to acts of dishonesty, to the forging of a check, 
the appropriation of money that belonged to another, 
and to many a similar deed which has opened wide 
the flood gate to the incoming of the billows of woe. 
10 



146 Magnetism of the Cross. 

I implore you have a care. Close the door against 
the possibility of such a disaster, and save yourself 
for the future by living wisely at the present. 

He drives recklessly who indulges in gambling 
of any sort. Xo matter whether it is on a large 
scale or a small one, whether it is concerned with 
markets or horses, lotteries or elections, it is dan- 
gerous business ; and many a man has been plunged 
into the abyss who has driven recklessly along that 
path. When the records of crime are opened we 
shall find that gambling has been the cause of many 
a defalcation, theft, murder, and suicide. You 
know how men are entangled in this dangerous busi- 
ness. They catch the fever of desire to make money 
more rapidly than they can by honest methods. 
The}- chance small sums and are successful. Then 

tlu-y rashly chance larger ones. They lose more fre- 
quently than the} - win. The}' find themselves over- 
whelmed with debt. The\- venture more largely in 
the hope of winning enough to pay off old scores. 
The}' close their eyes and urge the panting steeds 
furiously onward, unmindful that the gulf of de- 
spair is just before them; and, before they are aware 
of it, they awake to the awful consciousness that 
they are ruined. Maddened by the excitement ; 
ever led to hope that they might succeed; rendered 



Modern Jbhi 147 

desperate by continued failure, they have taken 
money thai did not belong to them; they have mort- 
d the home; they have borrowed money that 
they never can pay, and now all is lost. A | 

name is tarnished. Reputation is ruined. Nome is 
broken up, and. in all tOO man) cases, the doors of 
the penitentiary close upon them. 

lie drives recklessly who appropriates money 
that belongs to another, hoping to he able to re- 
place it before he is detected. I could give you 
the names of many young- men who have followed 
that plan and were driven over the precipice to end- 
less ruin. Many a man has committed suicide be- 
cause he was afraid to face the consequences of his 
deeds. I beg of you to have a care. If you are 
standing face to face to-night with such temptations 
as I have described, or temptations that are like unto 
these, turn away from them. Say no, in such man- 
ner that the tempter will not misunderstand you. 
Set your face like a flint against the evil. It were 
a thousand times better to have a little honesty 
earned, than to hug the delusive fancy that you may, 
by following the path against which I have warned 
you, secure a larger portion. It is a delusive fancy. 
There are comparatively few who ever win along 
that line. And if you should win, your success 



148 Magnetism of the Cross. 

would be the accumulation of money such as could 
not fail to bring the loss of self-respect, confidence 
of friends, and other treasures which are dearer to 
the soul than uncounted gold. 

He drives recklessly who employs dishonest busi- 
ness methods or questionable practices for the sake 
of gain. He may make money for a time, but there 
is surely a yawning gulf before him. He may seem 
to succeed. He may crush out all competitors, as 

others have done again and again in this country. 
He may ama nine such as will be the envy of 

countless thousands. But what is fortune when 
compared with character. Fortune must be left be- 
hind. Character we take with us. It is a part of 
Ourselves. It is what God knows us to be. And we 
are journeying toward a land where one will be 
led rich or p<»(»r, not in accordance with the 
amount of material treasures which he has been 
able to gather together, but according tO the char- 
acter which he has built up in harmony with truth 

and righteousness. The business world is full of 
reckless drivers. There are those who drive over 

the interests <>f the poor, over the rights of human- 
ity, over moral law, over future hopes, over the 
Struggling and unfortunate. The great prize is 
gold. It must be gained by fair means or foul. 



Modern Jehi 149 

Everything thai stands in the way of the ambition 
and purpose to be rich, musl be thrust aside. R 

I They will find at last that "the world 

they loved >o much has turned to dust and ash 
their touch." I have nothing to say against the ac- 
cumulation of riches honestly earned, but I do de- 
clare that he drives recklessly and to ruin, who, for 
the sake of becoming rich, drives over the righl 
others, crushes out competitors by unjust and dis- 
honest methods, and adds to his fortune by the em- 
ployment of means such as are little less than rob- 
bery. Justice holds an even balance, and no man 
can live a life of wrong, trample on the rights 
of others, employ dishonest or questionable methods 
and not wake up at last to the consciousness that he 
has driven with reckless hand into the gulf of ruin. 
He drives recklessly who disregards the warn- 
ings of conscience and inspiration. Man is mak- 
ing a journey over the path of life for the first and 
only time. The way is strange. The path lies 
through the country of the enemy. Dark clouds 
frequently surround us. We must journey during 
the night as well as day. We need a guide. God 
has spoken to us by two voices. If we will but 
listen to these we shall be led aright toward the g 
of the future. There is a friend at either hand. 



150 Magnetism of the Cross. 

Conscience speaks in the interest of the soul and of 
true manhood. You can not disregard conscience 
and drive safely. He drives recklessly who stills 
the speaking of the voice within. But there is a 
voice that speaks from without. God has not left 
everything to impression. There is the voice of in- 
spiration, lie has given us the Bible. That is the 
chart of the great sea. It speaks to us clearly con- 
cerning tlie way of life. It makes plain the will of 
God. It marks out the path of duty. It gives us 
all the light we need to get home. And not only 
has our Father given tis a divine book, he has, also, 
given tis a divine life. God sent His Son to live in 
the world among men to make known the way of 
right. He LS the perfect man. His is the pattern 
life. He IS the light of the world. His is a spotless 
character and the divine ideal. 

Thus the inner and the outer voices arc con- 
stantly -peaking to man. The}- are always whis- 
pering of duty, of law, of love, of the great hopes 
of the heart, of what man ought to become, of what 
he ought to do, and of the glory that awaits him if 
he will but walk in the path of duty. A light 
serene and beautiful is forever falling on the path 
of life. He drives recklessly who drives on with 
ears closed to the whispering of these heavenly 



Modern Jehi 151 

friends The engineer is foolhardy who disregards 
the red lights and dashes on with a full head of 
.steam into the darkness. The traveler is foolhardy 
who walks on in the tall grass, heedless of the soul- 
chilling ring of the rattlesnake's note of warning. 

The mariner is foolhardy who disregards the chart, 
and, without a pilot, keeps on his way down the 
channel where the deadly rocks are concealed. The 
frontiersman is foolhardy, who, far out on the 
prairie, many miles from home, pays no attention to 
the phenomena that tell of the coming blizzard. But 
infinitely more reckless, infinitely more foolhardy 
is he who drives onward down the path of life with 
ears closed to the whisperings of the voices of con- 
science and inspiration. 

He drives recklessly and furiously who closes 
his eyes and keeps them closed to the consequences 
of his deeds. The precipice of destruction-bringing 
habits may be just before him. His choices are 
whirling him rapidly toward the abyss that yawns 
deep, dark, and deadly, in his path. But he scorns 
the danger signals, closes his eyes to the red lights 
of warning, and drives on into the darkness. He 
says, practically if not absolutely, "Never mind the 
future. The genius of the present sings a charm- 
ing song. My soul delights in the fascinating ex- 



152 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

citement of this mad pace. Let the future take care 
of itself I Drive on ! [Make the wheels of pleasure 
spin ! Never mind the flashing- signals ! Let the 
conservative alarmist croak ! We will live this hour 
no matter what may come the next." That is folly. 
He is mad who sells the future for any prize the 
present may offer. 

lie drives reckle>>ly who drives toward eternity 
unprepared to meet God. We must go into eternity. 
We must meet God ( hw past will go before us to 

meet us on the shores of that other country. We must 
meet our lives in judgment, and he is a reckless 
driver who drives headlong toward eternity, care- 
lessly and indifferently. The engineer is reckless who 

goes at full speed into the water that has overflowed 
the banks of the stream, without knowing whether or 

not the bridge has keen swept away. But thrice 

reckless is he who drives furiously into the dark 
waters Of death without knowing that his feet will 
- the bridge of life through faith in Christ Jesus 
our Lord, over which he may pass in .safety to the 
mansions of the blessed. Be wise. Trust God to- 
day. Live in the present, hut for the future. Let 
reason hold the reins with stead}- hands. Listen 
to the voices of conscience and inspiration. Follow 
the guide. Drive toward the light, so shalt thou 



Modern J mm 153 

drive in safet) toward the land of the eternal 
morning, 

But there is another line of thought su I by 

the character of this man. whose lift and work arc 

introduced to us by these strange words. Jehu 

wa^ a man who, when he had any work to do, did 
it at once, enthusiastically, and with a whole heart. 
When the hour of action came he threw himself into 
the work with irresistible enthusiasm. Jehu was 
convinced that he might wear the crown of empire 
and rule over Israel. He came to feel that God had 
chosen him for this great work. The crisis hour 
was reached when the prophet took him away from 
his fellows and anointed him for the kingdom with 
the holy oil of consecration. In that moment the 
time for dreaming had passed. The time for action 
had come. Jehu did not sit idly down to think of 
the words of the prophet, and dream of the golden 
opportunities and the great honor that would come 
to him when he was king. He arose and began to 
act. The day was not over until he was flying in 
hot haste toward the gates of Jezreel. He did not 
let the sun set until he was on his way to settle ac- 
counts with Jehoram. Had he done so, his cause 
would have been lost. Had he not acted promptly, 
news of what had been done would have reached 



154 Magnetism of the Cross. 

the king in his palace at Jezreel. Jehoram would 
have doubtless been supported by the king of Judah. 
They would have had time to prepare for the con- 
flict, and Jehu would have been worsted, or, at 
least, have conquered only after long delay and 
much loss of life. But acting as he did, promptly, 
enthusiastically, almost furiously, he made himself 
master of the situation. 

lie had work to do, and he did it at once. That 
is the way to win. The pages of history are written 
over with the r of human lives which have 

5e of the lack of prompt action ; and, on 
;her hand, the men who have won grandly, sub- 
dued mighty enemies, and gained great victories, 
have been the men who have acted promptly, hero- 
ically, enthusiastically, and almost rashly. How did 
the little Corsfcan come to gain the place which he 
hold> in French history? It w he acted 

on the plans which lie had matured On the 10th 
of May, [796, the French troops, under the com- 
mand of Napoleon, were face t<> face with the Aus- 
trian at Lodi. The prize of battle was the ma 
of Italy. It was readily seen that nothing but the 
old stone bridge lay between the French and victory. 
Could that be crossed? All save one man said no. 
Xapoleon said that it must be crossed. The Aus- 



Modern Jr.m 155 

trian batteries wore bo placed thai they cottld rake 
it with murderous lire. "It is impossible/' said one 
of the officers, "that our men can force their waj 
^> that narrow bridge iii the Eace of such an 
annihilating storm of bullets as musl be encoun- 
tered." "Impossible !" cried Napoleon. "That 
word is not French." He gave command to 
storm the bridge; and the Little Corsican himself 
was the second man on and across it. The bridge 
was crossed. The Anstrians were defeated. Na- 
poleon was master of Italy, and the star of his mili- 
tary genius rose at once to the zenith. It was the 
impetuosity of the man that won the victory. If 
you have made up your mind that a thing ought to 
be done, go at it and do it. 

"Impossible" is a word that ought to be used 
sparingly. It is not wise to be rash, but I am per- 
suaded that more people are ruined by a dilly-dally 
policy than by rashness. More men fail because 
of the lack of prompt action than for any other 
reason. Most people have ideals enough and grand 
enough, plans enough, and dreams bright enough. 
Failure is at the point of action. 

You know why Hannibal failed. You remem- 
ber that he swore eternal vengeance against Rome ; 
that he calmly took possession of Spain ; that he 



156 Magnetism of the Cross. 

pushed on to the east, successful over every oppo- 
sition ; that he conquered the hitherto unconquered 
passes of the Alps ; that he hurled his war-worn 
veterans against the flower of the Roman army on 
the plains of the Fo and gained a most decisive vic- 
tory. Then came the battle of the Transimine Lake. 
Rome was completely conquered. Her army was 
Crushed. That was tlie critical hour. Hannibal 
was urged to march at once against the capital. 
Had lie acted promptly, before Rome could recover 

from the awful blow which he had dealt her, he 
might have made himself master of the city and 
the republic. But, contrary to the exhortation of his 
Best friends, he would not march. He did not avail 

himself of the fruits "1* his victory. He delayed, 

rful of the consequences of prompt action. He 

d, and while he waited Koine regained her 
fret. You know the rest, Rome could not be sur- 
prised again. Hannibal was defeated. The war 

Carried into Africa, and Carthage was reduced 

to ruin. These contrasts of history bring to us a 

great truth. 

Victory is consequent on prompt and heroic ac- 
tion. This is true in every realm. It is true in busi- 
neSS life. Tt is true for him who would gain an edu- 
cation ; but, above all, it is'true in the realm of 



Mopiun Jkiii 157 

morals and religion, [f you would make a sue 
in life; if you would be an able soldier of the Lord 
Jesus Christ; if you would gain the crown of im- 
mortality and eternal life, you must not only know 
the path of duty bul follow it. Jehu acted promptly, 
enthusiastically, and with impetuosity, becau 
crown had been offered to him. I offer you a crown 
to-night. It is not the crown of Israel, it is the 
crown of righteousness. It is the crown of life. 
Tt is the crown of eternal empire. It is the crown 
of glory. Would you wear it? You must take it. 
Begin now. Act heroically. Sacrifice everything 
that mars character. Live for the King. Walk in 
the path of righteousness. Act, and act promptly, 
and the crown will be yours. 

Finally, the zeal of Jehu was born out of the 
consciousness that he w r as on a divine mission. God 
had a great work for him to do. The house of 
Ahab had trampled on all law, justice, and right- 
eousness. The blood of Naboth, as well as that of 
ten thousand godly men, was crying to heaven for 
vengeance. The national life of Israel was so per- 
meated with corruption and wrong that it could be 
saved only by sweeping away the leaders whom the 
people were following into the depth of degradation 
and sin. The house of Ahab must be destroyed. 



158 Magnetism of tiik Cross. 

The time does come in the history of a nation when 
the stains of wrong can be washed away only by 
the blood of the transgressors. Jehu was chosen 
for the work of vengeance. You remember that, 
on the very morning of which we have been speak- 
ing, one of the prophets came to Jehu and said, 
"The Lord Jehovah hath anointed thee to be king 
over Israel." Thus it came to pass that Jehu was 
driven to his work by an enthusiasm born of the 
feeling that he was God-sent. 

The word inspiration is kindred to that which 
means madness; and it has happened many a time 

in the world's history that men to whom God has 
Spoken and into whose heart He has put a great 
;ht, have been regarded as madmen by the 
world \\h«> could not understand them. Paul was 
ing mad, when he spoke with fiery 
eloquence before the king. John Brown was judged 

to he insane, because he lived and died with the 
great h<»pe burning in his soul that slavery might end 

in these United State-. Stephenson was thought to 

be Crazy, because he maintained that steam would 
\et drive cars at the rale of fifteen miles an hour. 
Morse was thought to be a Visionary enthusiast, be- 
cause he believed that wonderful achievements 
would be wrought by the power of electricity. Co- 



Modern Jehus. 

lumbufl was treated as an insane man, because the 
great thought had taken possession of him that 
Imlia could be reached by sailing westward. Soc- 
rates was a era/}- man to the Greeks; ( His, of Bos- 
ton, was a madman to tin cultured friends of Lord 
Mansfield, because lie dared to argue against the 

right ^i England to tax the colonies. It lias hap- 
pened a thousand times in the world's history that 
genius and piety have been condemned because they 
have dared to listen to the voices of God, and to be- 
lieve in the possibility of great things. But let me 
remind you to-night that only as a man gets a com- 
mission from the throne of God and lives to work 
it out does life become sublime. 

The great characters of history are the men and 
women who have felt that they are called of God 
to do a great work. Moses came to be the deliv- 
erer of Israel, because he heard the voice of Jeho- 
vah speaking to him from out the burning bush. 
Gideon wrote his name on the pages of history, be- 
cause he heard a divine voice saying, "Go and de- 
liver Israel. Lo, I have sent thee." Paul was an- 
other man after he had heard the crucified and risen 
Redeemer say, "I will send thee far hence unto the 
Gentiles." Socrates is the grandest of the Greeks, 
because he would not desert the post of duty, at 



160 Magnetism of the Cross. 

which he had been stationed by what he believed to 
be the command of God. When Alaric, the king of 
the Goths, swept down from the north against the 
effete and powerless civilization of Rome, he was 
driven on, so he tells us, by a preternatural im- 
pulse which compelled him to march against the 
gates of the imperial city. And who will dare to 
say that he was mistaken? Who can say that it 
was not God's plan, through his labor, to rejuvenate 
a dying civilization, and fit it to bless the \?orld? , 
When Luther stood before the Diet of Worms he 
d, because he knew that he was standing 
for the truth of God. Joan of Arc was ever vic- 
torious as long as she could feel that she was acting 
on divine direction. And when she went beyond 

that she failed, just as other people have failed for 

the same reason before and >ince her time. 

The days of inspiration have not passed away. 

I believe that the Bible is inspired as no other book- 
in the world is inspired. But, having gtiarded that 
point, I believe that there is an inspiration for every 
man. I believe that God puts into the hearts of 
men everywhere great thoughts which can be worked 
otit for the world's uplifting and saving. God will 
inspire you. lie has called you to do something 
for humanity just as truly as he ever called Moses 



Modern Jui i s. 



i6i 



.id the children of the chosen seed to the shores 
of the land of promise. Listen to the voices of con- 
science and inspiration. Dedicate yourself to some 
great work. Be loyal to Jesus Christ. Make your- 
self acquainted with His plans. Catch His spirit. 
Live in the world as He lived in it and you can not 
fail to make your life sublime. 



ii 



VIII. 

the love of christ a fact and a 

FORCE. 

"That ye may be ol V . . . to know the low of 

Christ which passeth km . that ye might 

with all the fullness of God."— Eph. 

iii, M. 

Paul had no sympathy with agnosticism. He 
was certain that knowledge was possible. He even 
I to pray that his conv< ht know the un- 

knowable. Does it seem that we have here a para- 
pure and simple? How can one know the un- 
knowable, how can one comprehend the incompre- 
hensible? The question will answer itself, and the 
paradox will disappear, when we recognize the fact 
that one may know experimentally, practically, in- 
spirationally, and savingly that which can not be 
known scientifically and exhaustively. The slave 
who, in the dark days before the Civil War, fled for 
life and liberty, with the yell of the bloodhounds 

162 



u. i,u\ i; i .i Christ \ r Porce, [63 

ars from afar, did nol know \ 
much scientifically concerning the North Star. He 
may no1 have known why it never set, but held its 
place unchanged amid the changing hosts of heaven, 
He may nol have known thai it was a great central 
sun, with a solar system, like our own, revolving 
around it. Probably he would haw been amazed 

and incredulous if any one had mentioned the dis- 
tance from our earth to that twinkling lighthouse of 
the North. But he knew it ; knew where to find it; 
knew that it had one fixed place in the northern sky, 
and he knew that its light led the way to a country 
tinder whose sheltering flag no man could be held 
in slavery. 

There is a sense in which the love of Christ 
passeth knowledge. If we are asked to say why 
Christ loves us we shall not readily find an answer. 

We can not comprehend the genesis of that love. 

a rule love is born of love, or out of a souks ap- 
preciation of a soul's worth. There is no mystery 
about the boy's love for his mother. She loves him ; 
has loved him always, and sacrificed for him since 
the hour he was born. That love is a holy fire 
which kindles the flames of affection on the altars of 
his soul. But Jesus loves those who hate Him. I 
can never forget the prayer which came from the 



164 Magnetism of the Cross. 

depths of the Master's soul as He hung on the cross. 
About Him were those who had rejected Him and 
compelled Pilate to crucify Him : those who jeered 
at Him; those who drove the nails through His 
hands and feet, and those who delighted in His 
agony because of the intense hatred which they 
cherished fur Him. With this rabble at His feet 
He prayed. What prayer would the natural heart 
prompt in such an hour? There was no thought of 

eance. The fountains of the great deep of Ills 
were broken tip and lie prayed, "Father, for- 
them, they know not what the} d •." 

n to that prayer 1 can readily believe the tradi- 
tion which says that the first man converted on the 
of PenteCOSl was the Roman .soldier who <lr.»ve 
the spear into the heart of our Lord. lie loves 
who hate Him. and that makes His love in- 

prehensi 

The I< Christ passeth knowledge because 

spirit and character make 
them unworthy of His love. There IS no mystery 
about the love of the American people for William 
McKinley. lie was a typical American. He fought 
his way from the lowest ; - to the highest 

post of honor. He was p of a great heart 

as well a- a mighty intellect. He bad the soul of a 



Tm. i,« » i; di' Christ a Pact and a F< 

hero. He proved himself to be 9 great statesman 
by h nificent handling of immense problems 

both in time of peace and war. He manifested the 
Christ spirit when he prayed thai no one might harm 
the wretch whose dastardly ad had stricken him 
down in the midst of his years of loving service. 
Hew Christian patience and resignation were re- 
vealed when at last the end came! He was a typical 
American, a noble man, a loving husband, an unself- 
ish patriot, a true friend, a whole-sonled Christian, 
a brave warrior, and a great statesman. lie was 
loved because he was worthy of love. But God, our 
Father, and Christ our Savior, love those whose 
characters mark them as unworthy of love. Hatred, 
bitterness, persecution, disobedience, enmity, insults, 
prodigality, and open rebellion never embitter the 
fountains of the divine heart. Xo matter how low 
you have fallen Jesus Christ loves you, and that is 
what makes His love the mystery of the ages. 

We are naturally drawn to those who are in har- 
mony with the deeper characteristics of our inner 
lives. The man of poetic temperament is drawn 
to the poet. The one who is possessed of a musi- 
cian's soul finds his heart beating in sympathy with 

-.Teat master's, whose compositions he admires. 
Men of scientific mind are drawn to those who use 



1 66 Magnetism of the Cross. 

the scientific method. Toilers of various crafts seek 
the company of those whose choices have led to the 
same style of life. There is such a thing' as moral 
gravitation. Like draws like the world over, and 
love is born of harmony of character. But Jesus 
loves those who have so persistently chosen evil as 
to make it their good ; and whose every heartbeat 
has come to be out of sympathy with the things lie 
stands for. He is pure, and yet He loves the im- 
pure, lie is truth, but IK- loves those whose lives 
are an open lie. He is light, and yet He loves th< 
who have chosen d 5. He is from heaven, and 

fret He loves those who have never so much 
looked in that direction. He always put the will of 
God first, and yet He loves those who are constantly 
trampling that will under their feet. His name and 
nature is love and yet vet those who 

follow the bent of hatred and revenge. When these 
facts Hv open to our view, then we see that the love 

of Christ is Incomprehensible. It passeth human 

knowledge. We have no rule to measure it. 

That thought The love of 

Christ passeth knowledge because it is infinite, and 
our powers of comprehension are finite. It is im- 
possible that the finite should know the infinite ex- 
haustively. 



Tm: [,< »\ i: < »i Christ a Fac i and a F< •< i . [67 

( >n a perfect day in July, with a party of Friends, 
I climbed to the summit of Mt, Marcy, the king 
of the Adirondacks. When we began our upward 
march from the level of Lake Colden, the moun- 
tains filled the horizon in every direction, and our 
was limited to the few objects that were 
crowded into a narrow valley. But as we ascended, 
the prospect became wider and wider, until, as we 
I on the bald brow of the grand old mountain, 
a magnificent panorama was spread out before our 
enraptured eyes. Far to the east the Green Moun- 
tains of Vermont rose to kiss the sky like hills of 
amethyst. Nearer to our exalted position, but yet a 
long way to the eastward, Lake Champlain came 
into view for almost its entire length ; and seemed 
like a silver ribbon thrown loosely upon an immense 
carpet of emerald. In the valley of the An Sable, 
we saw patches of woodland, with stretches of 
meadow between them; and, from our place of vis- 
ion, there seemed to be but little difference between 
the giants of the forest and the humble grasses of 
the field. On the side of the mountain we beheld 
Lake Tear-of-thc-Cloud, as the Indians have named 
it, nestling among the green pines like a crystal 
goblet in a bank of forest mosses. Sixty-three lakes 
in sight, reposing on the bosom of the land- 



168 Magnetism of the Crc 

scape, like so many fragments of a great mirror that 
had been shattered by the gleaming lightnings dur- 
ing an awful storm, and scattered to the four winds 
of heaven and allowed to fall wherever chance might 
guide. Below us in every direction the mountains 
rose from the level of the plain. The lower ones 
»ded to the very summit, but the bare fore- 

Ifl of their loftier brothers flashed back the shafts 
of sunlight which fell upon their brows of granite, 
while mountain and hill, valley and river, forest and 
meadow, were flooded with wave on wave of beauty 
and glory. That was an immense, soul-ravishing 
prospect ; but we were C - that our vision was 

limited. We knew that beyond the ken of our weary 

. were unseen mountains, rivers, lakes, and wide 
oceans, beyond which were almost infinite stretches 
of plains, mountains, seas, and continents that go 
to make Up this planet of OUTS. And then we knew 
that this world was onl; ck, a mere grain of 

sand, an infinitesimal mote in the vast universe, made 
£ an innumerable host of SUns and systems 
that wheel and circle through the limitless Stretches 
of unthinkable space. We could not see all on that 

glorious day because the power of vision is limited. 
It is exactly thus with the love of God. It is a 

boundless universe. Standing on some mountain 



Tm. i.<>\ i: mi Christ a Fact anj . i6g 

peak of experience or revelation) we have soul-rav- 
ishing visions of infinite love. But we can not com- 
the whole, which is to thai which we compre 1 - 
bend as the two hundred miles seen from Mt. Marcy 
is to the boundless universe which lay beyond the 

reach Of our weary eyes. 

But, while there is a sense in which love of 
Chri>t passeth knowledge, there is another in which 
it can he known as a fact, apprehended as a force 
and experienced as the soul's complement, inspira- 
tion, and transfiguration. 

There is a revelation of the love of Christ as a 
fact in what he has done for us. The grandest 
revelation of love is by action. We know that Jona- 
than loved David because the Crown Prince of Is- 
rael endangered his throne to serve his friend. We 
know that Enoch Arden loved Annie Lee, because 
he pined away and died when, returning from the 
long imprisonment on that loveliest island of a lovely 
sea, he found that, wearied with waiting, she had 
married Philip Ray, and he might never hold her 
to his heart again. We know that Jacob loved 
Rachel, for he served for her during fourteen years, 
and found that time as but a day, because Cupid 
was singing a song of hope in his heart. We know 
that the bovs who wore the blue during the dark 



170 Magnetism of the Cross. 

days of the Ws loved their country, for they took 
their lives in their hands and went to the tented 
field, bared their breasts to whistling bullets and 
gleaming sabers, charged batteries that were hurl- 
ing death and hell upon the doomed ranks, and 
gave their bodies to fill unnamed graves amid the 
canebrakes of the Sunny South. We know that Bis- 
marck loved Germany, for his whole life is a wit- 
to the truthfulness of his words, "Let them 
hang me if they will, so long as the rope with which 
they do the deed binds United Germany to the foot 
of the Prussian throne. 

So likewise the love of Christ is revealed by 
what he did for man. When I see Jesus stepping 
down from the throne of glory to clothe Himself 
in the garments of human flesh; when I see Ilim 
born to poverty, loneliness, rejection, and shame; 
when I see Ilim pierced with the arrows of sorrow- 
that were never aimed at another man; when I see 
Ilim in the Garden of Geth.semane, suffering more 
than mortal agony under the shadow of its great 
trees, while the weight of the world's sin is crush- 
ing into the dust the shoulders that could have 
borne with perfect ease the combined weight of ten 
million worlds; when I see Hi- face stained with 
blood which an unthinkable mental agony drove in 



Th i Love o* Christ a Pact and a Fobce. i 7 1 

• drops through cycw pore of His body; when 
I e 1 1 i in in Pilate's Judgment Hall, with the piti- 

scourge cutting I lis quivering flesh till the red 
tides of life stained to crimson the pavement at His 
feet; when I sec the crown of thorns on His brow, 
which rude hands smite to His wounding; when I 
sec Him on the Way of Sorrows, fainting under the 

S that was too heavy for His exhausted nature; 
when I see Him on the brow of that little moun- 
tain which is yet high enough to be seen from every 
corner of the universe ; when I see them drive the 
nails into His hands and the spikes into His feet; 
when I see them lift Him up between heaven and 
earth as though he were not fit for either; when I 
hear that wail of agony from the cloud-encircled 
hill, "My God, my Cod, why hast Thou forsaken 
me!" when I see the Son of God close His eyes in 
death with a hissing rabble insulting His dying 
groans, then I enter the holy of holies of that won- 
derful verse, "God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

But the love of Christ is something more than a 
fact as a central revelation of a religious system. 
There is a revelation of that love as an experience. 
It is written, "The love of God is shed abroad in 



\ 



172 Magnetism of the Cross. 

our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto 
us." We may know experimentally and savingly 
that which we know little about scientifically and 
exhaustively. There is an experience of love when 
heart answers to heart and soul to soul, and experi- 
mental knowledge is soul-satisfying. The man who 
is dying of thirst as he tramps across the desert 
reaches the spring. He does not know where the 
water comes from. He knows nothing of its chem- 
ical composition. He does not know how it saves 
a dying man. But the deepest instincts of his nature 
tell him that water is what he must have or die. lie 
kneel> at the margin, drinks long and deeply, and 
feels again the thrill of life leaping through his body. 
Prom that hour he knows that water saves a man 
who is dying of thirst. He has experimental knowl- 
fe of its power. There is in man a spiritual in- 
stinct which declares that the love of Christ is the 
deepest in he dying SOlll. In our need we 

look to the Lamb of God. We take Him as the man 

in the desert takes the water. The Holy Ghost does 
His own work. The love of God is shed abroad in 
our hearts. We feel the thrill of spiritual life. The 
love of Christ becomes an experimental fact. We 
know it. And that knowledge becomes a power in 
our lives. 



Tm: Love o* Christ a Pact and \ Por< b. 173 

The love of Christ is something more than a 
fact or an experience. It is one of the might 

- in the uni We shall make a great mis- 

take if we think of love simpl) entiment It 

is inspirational as well as transforming. Garibaldi 
offered his soldiers hunger, thirst, dangers, wounds, 

hardships, imprisonment, and possible death ; and yet 
the Italians flocked to his standard by the thousand. 

That was because they loved Italy. Jean Val Jean 
saved the life of Marius when it was all against his 

own interest to do so. That was because he loved 
Cosette and wanted her to be happy no matter what 
came to him. Miriam, the old hag, who figures so 
prominently in Hypatia, scoured the world for gold 
to enrich Ebenezra. That was because he was her 
son, and she loved him. Eliza, the real heroine of 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, pressed her babe to her breast 
and leaped from cake to cake to make her way over 
the Ohio River, when it was full of running ice, 
and no man dared to follow her. That was because 
she loved her boy and preferred to die with him 
rather than have him dragged hack into slavery 
again. The folk of the Glen waded through moun- 
tains of snow to stand around the grave of old 
William McClure, because his unselfish service had 
kindled the fires of luve on the altars of their souls. 



174 Magnetism of the: Cross. 

The black servants of David Livingstone bore the 
body of their dead friend across the territory of hos- 
tile tribes, where they had to fight for right of way, 
through tangled forests, in hunger and thirst, when 
they were obliged to leave many of their number 
dead by the wayside, for fifteen hundred miles to 
Zanzibar, that the sacred dust of the grand man 
might be sent to England for entombment in West- 
minster Abbey. That was because his Christlike 
service had won them to him body and soul. 

[£ the love of men and women can exert such a 
mighty power and w<>rk such transformations in 
human life what a force the love of Christ will be 
to those who come to know it experimentally and 
savingly. As selfishness disappears before the 
music when the harp of life is touched by the hand 
of human love, so the love of Christ must he trans- 
forming, as well as the inspiration of the very best. 
We must not overlook the end of this revelation 
divine love, God in Providence and Grace, as 
11 as in nature; is ever working toward a sub- 
lime end. Paul tells us what the end is, "That ye 

might be filled with all the fullness of God." The 

forces of nature are in full Operation that the acorn 

may come to be a perfect oak-tree. The forces of 

the Spirit are in full play that I may be filled with 



Tin: 1,m\i; <>r CHRIST A 1' i 75 

all the fullnesa of God. That ii the hope of the 
Gospel. That is the i;<>al of the Christian. 

Glorious results will attend the answvr of this 

sublime prayer. It will bring God into our l : 
The greatest need of our age is an every-day and 
ever-present God. There has been a growing ten- 
dency in cur age to make God unreal. The study 

of natural science, the materialism resulting from 
material prosperity, the substitution of the Reign 
of Law for the operation of a personal Will, have 
pushed God far from many men and women. To 
know 7 the love of Christ will insure such an experi- 
mental knowdedge of God as will bring- the divine 
into our lives as a spiritual reality. That will secure 
results that are superlatively glorious. 

The fullness of God is the fullness of goodness. 
The sublimest eulogy on the life of Christ is ex- 
sed in five words: "He went about doing 
good." If we are filled with the fullness of God 
the tides of benevolence must set in toward our fel- 
low-men. We shall not be asking, "How much can 
I get out of the world ?'' but "How much can I do, 
how much can I give to it ?" Lord Shaftesbury once 
said, with tears in his eyes, as he was talking of 
the wrongs of the working girls of London: "When 
I think that I am growing old, and that I have not 



176 Magnetism of the Cross. 

long to live, I hope it is not wrong, but I can not 
bear to die and leave the world with so much 
wretchedness in it." The love of Christ filled the 
noble man with an intense desire to do good. How 
tender, compassionate, loving, helpful Jesus ever 
I If His Spirit dwells in us we shall look upon 
the world through Hi- we shall have His 

hands. His heart. His feet; we shall live His life 
among men. The failure of life is the failure to 
represent the loving kindness of the Master. 

The fullness of God is the fullness of power. 

Joseph Cook once said: "Nature is the glove on 

the hand of the Infinite. " What power there is in 

nature! Some one has said that there is power 

enough in Niagara to drive all the factories of the 
whole world; and Niagara is only one of a multi- 
tude of rivers that p<>ur their water- into the 
What a power there is in steam! A few gallons of 
water expanded into steam will give tis force to 
drive a long train of car- thundering aCTOSS the con- 
tinent. And the possibilities for -team are well-nigh 
infinite, [ fifth- of the earth'.- surface is cov- 

ered with water, and there is fuel enough within 
reach to convert the whole into steam. This old 
world of ours is driving through space surrounded 
by an ocean of electrical possibilities which we have 



• \l> A POW i.. 177 

only begun to learn how t<> use. There is power in 

electricit) to Bend a mes Jit times around the 

earth in a single d of time; and that is only 

one of a thousand <>( its achievements. What p 

there is in sunshine! It lifts millions of tons of 
water from the surface of the ocean, that the thirsty 
lands may he satisfied, and millions of ions of mate- 
rial from the soil that the forests may be built up; 
and yet not more than one two-billionths of the sun's 
radiant energy reaches our world. Scientists tell 
us that if the earth were to be held in its orbit by 
steel wires, it would require as many, an inch in 
diameter, as could be stretched between the earth 
and the sun. How easily God holds the earth by 
the invisible wires of gravitation ! And this planet 
is only one of an uncounted host. 

Touch Nature where you please, and you will 
find a great storehouse of power. Xow, remember 
the words of Joseph Cook : ''Nature is but the glove 
on the hand of the Infinite." If there is so much 
power in the glove, how much power shall we find 
in the hand, how much in the arm, and how much 
in the infinite Personality back of hand and arm? 
There is power to create, govern, control, save, and 
keep. We can trust God and rest in peace. If we 
are filled with the fullness of God, we can not fail 
12 



178 Magnetism 0* the Cross. 

If we fail it will be because we put from us the 
power that will be far more than adequate for all 
our needs. Appropriate the power and the force 
will serve you. Know the love of Christ and you 
will be strong for victory and progress. 

The fullness of God is the fullness of patience. 

We need something more than power. We need 

power at its best, Patience is the ability to do our 

without worry and fret. God's mightiest forces 

are Silent, unobtrusive, frictionless. The great man 

does his work and bides his time. William of 

called The Silent; not because he could 

not talk, but because, in the awful tumult of his age, 

he could keep his counsels and was unmoved by 

the impetuosity of the storm to which he was ex- 

1. li we are tilled with the fullness of God we 

shall be able to do our work, meet our enemies, win 

our victories, and be calm in the midst of every 

btorm. 

The fullness of God i^> the fullness of rest and 

peace. How calm Jesus was! His was a troubled 

life. The v. < iv con-tantly breaking over 

Him; and yet you might have gone to Him at any 
moment to find that He was kept in perfect peace. 

He had found the dead center of life. Scientist^ 
us that if you could take your stand at the center of 



Tin I. liKisr a Pact and a Force- 179 

the cyclone you would find perfect calm. 
think of it. The dead center of that whirling, seeth- 
ing, destructive, death-bringing tempest is perfect 
calm. Jesus bad found the dead center of life, and 
could saw "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are 

y laden, and 1 will give yoti rest/' Rest lias 
been the supreme desire of the human heart in all 

The song of peace, like the musical murmur 

of the fabled fountain of immortality, has been fill- 
ing the ears of the heavy laden in all lands and ; 
And rest is the consciousness that fills the soul when 
we know that all is well, and that we are being taken 
care of. 

Two great painters were asked to paint, each in 
his own way, his conception of Christian rest. The 
first threw upon the canvas a scene in the moun- 
tains. Rough and rugged hills filled the horizon in 
every direction. Nestling among them, where no 
breath of the tempest could ever sw r eep over its 
waters, was a little lake. "That/* said he, "is my 
idea of peace." When the second painter unveiled 
his work, it was observed that he, too, had painted 
a scene in the mountains. But it was entirely dif- 
ferent. In the background there were jagged cliffs, 
ring mountains, and storm-scarred valleys. 
Down one of the narrow valleys, that had been carved 



180 [Magnetism of the Cross. 

through the heart of the granite by the forces of 
nature, came a mountain torrent, leaping from ledge 
to ledge, plunging down long stretches of tilted 
rocks, foaming white like the flanks of a racehorse, 
until it reached the edge of a yawning chasm, into 
which it plunged with every appearance of deafen- 
ing roar. Out of the seething abyss came clouds of 
mist, and the sunlight smiting through them painted 
the morning and evening s. Just by the edge 

of the chasm the artist had painted a tree. On the 
tree was a limb that was wet with the spray that 
broke over it. ( hi the limb was a nest, and in the 
nest a bird, calmly sitting on her eggs; while 
near at hand wa> her mate, with beak wide apart, as 
if singing one of his sweetest Bongs. "That," said 
the artist, is my idea of peace." 

We rest in Christ, not because He shields us 

from every BtOItXl that sweeps in fury over tin 

of life, for he does aol do that; but because in the 

storm lie holds US and puts into our souls a song 
Of peace. 

The fullness of God is the fullness of life. There 
must be a fountain of life somewhere. Spontaneous 
generation is one of the exploded humbugs of the 
nineteenth century. It is the eternal law of biology 
that life COmeS Only from life. The universe is full 



Til i. I . BRIS1 a I ; \> I 

of life — multiplex', multiform, and glorious. That 
makes it necessary that there shall he an infinite 
fountain of life somewhere. There is such a foun- 
tain. It is God. "In Him we live and move and 
have our being." The fullness of life will bring 

glorious results. 

Life has in it the possibility of growth. The 

diamond can never he anything more than it is he- 
cause it is a dead thing. It belongs to the kingdom 
of the inorganic. It may become something less 
than it is now, hut it never can be anything- greater. 
The tiny plant that came from the heart of the acorn 
will be vastly more than it is because it is a living 
thing. As we are filled with the fullness of God 
we are filled with the fullness of life. That means 
that we shall be infinitely more than we are now. 
Paul was right when he said, "Now I know in, part, 
then I shall know even as also I am known ; now 
e through a glass darkly, but then face to face." 
I am a living soul. That means an infinite destiny. 
And the goal of the best shall be reached; for, in 
the second place, life has power to realize the per- 
fection of its type. Every living thing struggles to 
realize its type. I stand here, in the morning sun- 
light, with the egg of a lark in my hand and say : 
"If you will put this Q<^g under the breast of the 



1S2 Magnetism of the Cross. 

mother bird, where the warmth of her bosom may 
bring the germ that is in it to perfection a birdling 
will one day come from this shell. If favorable con- 
ditions attend, and it is allowed to grow to ma- 
turity, there will come a morning in the springtime 
when the full-grown bird will spring from its own 
nest in the meadow, and. shaking the dewdrops from 
its wings, soar upward, singh weet a song 

that every pilgrim will pause to listen. When you 
say to me, "Tell us bow you dare make such a 

prophecy," I answer, "It is tin- egg ^i a lark, and 

Nature has stamped UpOO every living tiling the 
eternal law, 'Life forever Struggles to approximate 
its type. 1 

The type of our life is the divine. John has this 

law in mind when he says: "Beloved, now are we 

tlie sons I, and it doth not yet appear what 

ball be; hut we know that when He appears we 
shall he like Him, for W€ shall See Him as He i>." 

- of men who are treading the path of life with 
bleeding k Up and rejoice! It is an eternal 

law of nature that life is forever energizing to ap- 

dmate its types. If you know the love of Christ, 

you will he filled with the fullness of Cod. That 
means that you will he filled with the fullness of 
the divine life. So filled you can not fail. You 



. i <>r Christ a Fac i and a Fobci . 
must come to be like Him. You will come to the 

In the gallery Of fine arts in Paris you may find 

a piece of very beautiful statuary. It has a history 
that will emphasize this superlative truth. For 

wars an old artist worked on the model, done in 
day, with painstaking care. At last it was com- 
plete, and a great joy filled his soul. That very 
night a cold northeast wind swept over Paris. The 

old man could think only of his model. As the cold 
stole into his gloomy quarters he said to himself, 
"If the moisture in the clay is allowed to freeze, the 
beautiful perfection of my model will be ruined." 
With the devotion of an idolater, he arose and piled 
all the clothing and bedding at his command upon 
the image that was the pride of his heart and the 
work of the years. The next morning the old man 
came not to breakfast at the appointed time. His 
friends sought him to find him stiff and stark. He 
had been frozen to death, but he had saved the 
image. It must be your supreme business to save 
the image of the divine at any cost. The path to 
that goal is given in the text. If you know the love 
of Christ you will be filled with all the fullness of 
That will give you power to approximate the 
divine type and save the image of infinite perfection. 



ONtCOPtWEUWtD 
AUG 27 1904 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Townsr*p. PA 10068 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



II II 

017 731 384 1 



I II llll II i mi 



■ 



At" 






m 



h 



ts 






■ 






■ ■ 






■ 
i i ■ 



